THE  GERMAN 
CONSPIRACY 
IN  AMERICAN 
EDUCATION 

GUSTAVUS 
HLINGEE 


THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 
IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION 

GUSTAVUS  OHLINGER 


THE 

GERMAN   CONSPIRACY 

IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION 


BY 

GUSTAVUS  OHLINGER 

CAPTAIN  if.  S.  A. 
Author  of  ''Their   True  Faith  and  Allegiance'*  etc. 


NEW  SIPJy  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


T/ 


Copyright,  ipip, 
By  George  H.  Doran  Company 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


PREFACE 

DURING  the  years  1904  and  1905  the 
writer  was  brought  into  frequent  contact 
with  German  officials  and  into  professional 
relations  with  German  courts,  particularly 
the  German  consular  courts  of  China. 

It  was  during  this  period  that  the  Chi 
nese  government  was  pressing  its  demands 
for  a  relaxation  of  the  laws  excluding  its 
subjects  from  the  United  States.  Its  efforts 
in  this  direction  gathered  popular  support  in 
all  parts  of  the  Empire — a  strange'  circum 
stance  in  view  of  the  traditional  apathy 
toward  public  policies  which  the  Chinese,  un 
til  then,  had  maintained.  But  on  this  ques 
tion  the  entire  nation  became  aroused.  Be 
fore  long,  walls  were  plastered  with  posters 
demanding  a  boycott  of  American  goods, 
and  circulars  urging  this  retaliatory  meas 
ure  were  passed  from  hand  to  hand.  Goods 
of  American  origin  were  immediately 


38861.8 


vi  PREFACE 

spotted  and  labelled,  and  then  left  to  lie  un 
called  for  in  the  godowns. 

During  a  visit  to  Tsingtau,  the  capital  of 
the  German  Kiaochow  Protectorate,  the 
writer  had  occasion  to  go  through  the  print 
ing  establishment  maintained  by  the  Ger 
man  government  for  its  official  publications. 
There,  to  his  astonishment,  he  found  the 
presses  busy  turning  out  boycott  literature. 
In  the  meantime  German  merchants  were 
taking  advantage  of  the  embarrassment  of 
American  trade  to  introduce  their  substi 
tutes. 

This  incident  is  characteristic.  The  tech 
nique  of  German  propaganda  consists  in 
seeking  out  the  differences  to  which  race,  re 
ligion,  language,  industrial  or  economic  con 
dition  may  give  rise,  in  inflaming  such  dif 
ferences  into  bitter  animosities,  and  then  in 
profiting  either  from  the  disintegration  pro 
duced  within  an  opposing  nation,  or  from  the 
quarrels  among  political  or  commercial  com 
petitors. 

The  rivalries  among  the  liberated  nation 
alities  of  Europe,  the  possible  misunder 
standings  and  differences  among  the  peoples 


PREFACE  vii 

who  have  fought  the  war  for  freedom,  will 
undoubtedly,  in  the  future,  furnish  fresh  op 
portunities  for  German  propaganda.  Against 
this  propaganda,  and  its  resulting  disintegra 
tion  and  dissension,  we  must  still  stand 
guard. 

G.O. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    A  PART  OF  THE  HIGHER  STRATEGY    ...       9 
II    CONDITIONS  FAVOURING  THE  CONSPIRACY     .     21 

III  THE  UNDERMINING  OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION    42 

IV  GERMAN  PROPAGANDA  THROUGH  AMERICAN 

UNIVERSITIES      .     .     .     .     .     ...     .     92 

V    NEW  IDEALS  IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION.     .   104 


THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY  IN 
AMERICAN  EDUCATION 


f 


THE    GERMAN    CONSPIRACY 
IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION 


A  PART  OF  THE  HIGHER  STRATEGY 

AGAIN  and  again  during  the  past  year  there 
has  been  presented  to  the  American  public  sen 
sational  evidence  of  the  conspiracies  set  on 
foot  in  the  United  States  by  Germany's  ac 
credited  diplomatic  and  consular  officials  as 
well  as  by  her  less  conspicuous  hirelings.  The 
plots  having  for  their  object  the  dynamiting  of 
the  Welland  Canal,  the  destruction  of  the  Port 
Huron  tunnel  and  of  the  Vanceboro  bridge,  the 
blowing  up  of  factories  in  Detroit  and  other 
cities,  the  sinking  of  ships  at  sea  by  time  bombs, 
the  organisation  of  armed  expeditions  against 
Canada  and  India,  the  forging  of  American 
passports,  the  inciting  of  revolution  in  Ireland, 

9 


10  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

the  fomenting  of  strikes  in  American  indus 
tries  and  the  corruption  of  American  public 
opinion — all  these  have  been  laid  bare  in  con 
vincing  detail.  The  history  of  diplomatic  in 
tercourse  offers  no  parallel  to  these  outrages 
upon  our  peace  and  security  perpetrated  by  the 
representatives  of  a  power  which,  at  the  time, 
was  protesting  the  friendliest  intentions. 

These  plots,  however,  recede  into  the  back 
ground  when  viewed  in  relation  to  the  far  more 
dangerous  and  insidious  conspiracy  which  Ger 
many,  through  her  agents,  sympathisers  and 
dupes,  has  prosecuted  against  American  edu 
cation.  Bridges,  canals,  factories  and  ships 
are  mere  physical  properties,  easily  replaced. 
Our  public  education,  on  the  other  hand,  repre 
sents  infinitely  higher  values.  In  our  schools 
are  transmitted  the  traditions  of  the  past ;  there 
the  ideals  for  the  future  are  formulated ;  there 
are  generated  those  moral  forces  which  bind 
us  together  and  vitalise  us  as  a  nation.  They 
are  the  repositories  of  our  national  spirit,  and 
national  spirit  cannot  be  made  to  order.  It  is 
born  of  the  travail  of  history,  of  the  sacrifices 
of  countless  thousands  in  the  past,  of  the  work 
of  those  rare  geniuses  that  flash  upon  a  nation's 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  11 

horizon  as  infrequently  and  mysteriously  as 
comets  from  an  unknown  stellar  system.  Once 
perverted  or  destroyed,  it  cannot  be  restored. 
With  it,  there  succumbs  the  nation,  and  the 
nation's  institutions  and  achievements  pass  into 
history.  The  plots  engineered  by  Kaltschmidt, 
Koenig,  von  Igel,  Consul  General  Bopp,  von 
Papen,  Boy-Ed,  Ambassador  Bernstorff  and 
their  retinue  of  lesser  malefactors  have  fur 
nished  the  press  frequent  opportunities  for  sen 
sational  headlines.  But  the  activities  of  these 
men  are  insignificant  when  compared  with  the 
insidious  and  far-reaching  conspiracy  against 
our  education. 

In  a  very  practical  sense  our  schools  are  the 
citadel  of  our  national  strength.  Napoleon 
declared  that  in  war  the  moral  is  to  the  physical 
as  three  to  one.  Neither  numbers  nor  equip 
ment  can  take  the  place  of  the  moral  qualities 
of  determination  and  discipline.  Prior  to  the 
French  Revolution,  the  wars  of  Europe  were 
waged  by  comparatively  small  armies,  made  up 
of  professional  soldiers  and  hired  mercenaries. 
The  paltry  thousands  commanded  by  Marl- 
borough,  Prince  Eugene,  Wallenstein  and 
Frederick  the  Great  could  be  welded  into  fairly 


12  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

intelligent  and  effective  unity  by  the  will  and 
prestige  of  a  great  commander.  The  profes 
sional  soldier  was  stimulated  by  the  same  de 
sires  for  reward  and  success  that  inspire  the 
efforts  of  men  in  every  other  occupation;  the 
mercenary  was  incited  by  the  lust  for  booty. 

But  with  the  development  of  the  nationalistic 
state,  the  art  of  warfare  passed  into  a  new 
stage.  To-day  wars  are  waged  by  nations,  by 
entire  races.  The  professional  soldier  and  the 
mercenary  have  disappeared.  It  is  no  longer 
the  will  of  a  great  commander,  the  prestige  of 
a  successful  general,  motives  of  self-interest 
or  of  professional  pride  that  furnish  the  moral 
factors  for  combat.  The  civilian  who  enters 
the  ranks  leaves  behind  him  his  private  inter 
ests,  his  volition,  to  a  large  extent  his  individ 
uality.  Their  places  are  taken  by  the  collec 
tive  interest  and  personality  of  the  nation. 
The  soldier  becomes  the  embodiment  of  the 
national  soul  and  through  him  the  state  finds 
expression.  The  morale  of  the  soldier,  there 
fore,  depends  upon  those  traditions,  views  of 
life,  and  instincts,  which  he  has  acquired  in 
common  with  the  other  members  of  his  nation, 
— those  things  which  the  state  has  imparted 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  13 

through  collective  education.     As  a  recent  mil 
itary  text-book  expresses  it: 

the  spirit  of  good  infantry  is  first  of  all 
given  by  the  first  moral  education  of  the 
man;  it  may  depend  on  an  ideal;  on  a  fanati 
cism  ;  it  is  a  function  of  the  public  spirit  of 
the  mass  of  the  population. 

Collective  education  given  by  society  is 
the  only  means  which  will  assure  to  the  army 
the  cohesion  necessary  to  march  to  victory. 
The  task  must  be  assumed  by  the  mass  of  the 
people — in  the  home,  the  school,  the  work 
shop.  The  spirit  of  duty  and  discipline  must 
be  cultivated  by  the  mass  of  the  people  or  it 
will  not  exist  in  the  depths  of  their  being. 

Strangely  enough,  the  Germans,  though  the 
latest  to  experience  the  effects  of  the  movement 
towards  national  unity,  have  been  the  first  to 
put  into  practice  the  change  which  it  has  neces 
sitated  in  the  military  art. 

Germany's  educational  system  was  designed 
to  meet  the  requirements,  as  she  analysed 
them,  of  national  wars  and  national  armies. 
She  adapted  her  schools  to  the  respective  roles 
which  she  intended  the  different  elements  of 
her  population  to  play  in  the  national  scheme. 
The  Volksschulen,  often  cited  erroneously  as 


14  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

corresponding  to  our  public  schools,  were  pro 
vided  for  the  great  mass  of  the  population. 
Here,  between  the  ages  of  six  and  fourteen, 
they  had  instilled  into  their  minds  the  precepts 
of  the  divine  sovereignty  of  the  Kaiser,  of  the 
beneficence  of  this  rule,  and  of  obedience  to  au 
thority.  They  were  impressed  with  the  im 
mense  advantages  inherent  in  their  form  of 
government  and  with  the  superiority  of  their 
Kultur;  they  were  told  again  and  again  that 
their  advancement  and  prosperity  had  aroused 
the  jealousy  and  hostility  of  neighbouring  na 
tions,  and  through  constant  iteration  they  were 
accustomed  to  regarding  military  preparation 
as  necessary  and  war  as  inevitable.  Day  by 
day  they  were  put  through  a  mental  goose- 
step  until  their  minds  were  fashioned  to  a 
single  pattern  and  they  were  made  into  docile 
and  efficient  subjects. 

These  were  the  privates  in  Germany's  mili 
taristic  organisation. 

For  those  who  were  to  fill  the  lower  admin 
istrative  ranks  there  were  provided  the  Mittel- 
schulen.  Finally,  for  those  destined  for  com 
mand,  there  were  the  Gymnasia,  taking  boys 
between  the  ages  of  nine  and  eighteen,  and 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  15 

then  the  universities.  Here  Germany  trained 
the  oligarchy  of  thinkers  and  experts  which 
prescribed  what  the  rest  of  the  population 
should  know  and  believe,  and  what  their  tasks 
should  be.  The  line  between  the  Volksschulen, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Gymnasia  and  univer 
sities  on  the  other,  was  drawn  as  rigidly  as 
that  separating  the  enlisted  personnel  from 
the  officers  in  the  army. 

In  this  manner  the  minds  of  the  nation  were 
regimented  and  the  moral  forces  for  Ger 
many's  military  machine  provided. 

Just  as  Germany  planned  her  own  educa 
tional  system  with  reference  to  her  military 
power,  so  she  sought,  as  a  part  of  her  higher 
strategy,  to  enhance  her  superiority  by  insinu 
ating  herself  into  the  moral  and  intellec 
tual  life  of  foreign  countries.  German 
schools  and  churches  abroad  she  set  down 
as  important  outposts  of  her  power.  If,  in 
addition  to  supporting  these  institutions,  she 
could  introduce  her  agents  into  the  native  edu 
cation,  there  disseminate  doubt  as  to  the  valid 
ity  of  native  traditions  and  with  regard  to  the 
adequacy  of  established  institutions,  replace 
national  spirit  by  a  shallow  cosmopolitanism, 


16  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

and  foster  an  admiration  of  Kultur  to  the  dis 
paragement  of  national  achievements, — then 
she  could  sap  the  very  sources  of  moral  re 
sistance.  It  would  be  an  easy  matter  to  fit 
the  people  with  a  coat  of  Kultur  cut  to  her 
own  measure  and  according  to  her  own  pat 
terns.  This  accomplished,  political  domina 
tion  would  come  in  due  course,  either  through 
voluntary  submission,  or  after  a  short  war  in 
which  every  moral  and  material  advantage 
was  with  the  aggressor. 

The  evidences  of  this  programme,  a  definite 
part  of  Germany's  higher  strategy,  are  writ 
large  over  the  parochial  schools,  the  public 
schools  and  the  colleges  and  universities  of 
America — they  are  as  unmistakable  as  the  gun 
emplacements  which  Germany  built  within  the 
territory  of  her  friendly  neighbours.  The 
purpose  of  both  was  the  same — military  con 
quest  and  political  domination. 

The  first  organised  effort  in  this  programme 
of  Kultur politik  took  place  in  1881.  In  this 
year  there  was  formed  "The  General  School 
Alliance  for  the  Preservation  of  Germanism 
in  Foreign  Lands"  (Allgemeiner  deutscher 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  17 

Schulverein  zwr  Erhaltung  des  Deutschthums 
im  Auslande).  "Not  a  man  can  we  spare," — 
so  read  its  declaration  of  principles, — "if 
we  expect  to  hold  our  own  against  the  one- 
hundred-and-twenty-five  millions  who  already 
speak  the  English  language  and  who  have 
pre-empted  the  most  desirable  fields  for  ex 
pansion."  It  declared  its  purposes  to  be 
the  preservation  and  promotion  of  German 
ism  among  the  thirty  million  people  of  Ger 
man  blood  dwelling  outside  the  boundaries 
of  the  Empire,  and  the  strengthening  of 
the  ties  binding  them  to  the  Fatherland,  in  this 
way  making  them  valuable  and  loyal  elements 
in  Germany's  national  life.  The  "Pan-Ger 
man  Alliance"  (Alldeutscher  Verband)  was 
inspired  by  the  fanatical  belief  in  Germany's 
destiny  as  a  world  empire,  the  School  Alliance, 
by  the  ambition  to  make  the  German  language 
the  world  language  and  to  impose  Kultur  upon 
every  race.  One  ambition  was  merely  the 
complement  of  the  other ;  the  cultural  work  of 
the  School  Alliance  was  an  important  means 
for  the  achievement  of  the  military  and  polit 
ical  objects  of  the  Pan-Germanists. 
The  School  Alliance  established  schools  and 


18  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

libraries  in  foreign  lands,  kept  in  touch  with 
those  already  in  existence,  and,  where  neces 
sary,  rendered  financial  aid.  It  maintained  a 
teachers'  bureau  for  the  purpose  of  supplying 
German-trained  educators  wherever  needed. 
A  few  years  ago  the  Alliance  was  merged  into 
the  "Society  for  Germanism  in  Foreign  Lands" 
(Verein  fitr  das  Deutschthum  im  Auslande) 
and  its  activities  were  widened  and  pursued 
with  increasing  energy.  The  German  govern 
ment  assisted  with  an  annual  subvention  of  a 
million  marks.  The  society  now  undertook  to 
segregate  the  German  immigrant  populations 
from  the  native  populations  in  foreign  lands, 
to  give  them  solidarity  socially  and  econom 
ically,  and  to  organise  them  into  political  units 
which  would  influence  the  policies  of  the  gov 
ernments  under  which  they  lived  in  favour  of 
German  schemes.  To  facilitate  the  creation 
of  a  state  within  the  state,  the  society  pro 
cured  the  enactment  of  the  notorious  Delbruck 
Law.  A  German  could  now,  even  after  natu 
ralisation  in  a  foreign  country,  remain  to  all 
intents  a  German  subject.  Such  a  man  readily 
perverted  his  acquired  citizenship,  together 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  19 

with  the  rights  it  afforded,  to  the  purposes  of 
his  old  allegiance. 

Not  content  with  its  own  people,  the  society 
carried  its  propaganda  into  the  native  popula 
tions  of  foreign  countries.  "German  schools 
abroad,"  so  it  declared,  "should  not  only  pre 
serve  German  nationality  among  the  children 
of  German  immigrants,  but  should  impart  Ger 
man  Kultur  to  the  youth  of  the  countries  where 
they  operate."  In  these  terms  German  schol 
ars  and  technicians,  who  were  called  to  educa 
tional  positions  abroad,  conceived  their  mis 
sion. 

Nowhere  did  the  Verein  operate  so  actively 
or  so  successfully  as  in  the  United  States.  For 
years  it  maintained  its  secret  agents  in  our 
midst,  working  in  favour  of  German  language 
schools  and  pulling  wires  for  a  German  polit 
ical  party.  German  teachers  laboured  inces 
santly  to  convert  the  so-called  "Anglo-Saxon" 
section  of  the  population  into  janizaries  of 
Kultur.  "The  spirit  of  German  Kultur," — so 
said  one  of  these  propagandists  occupying  a 
high  position  in  an  American  university, — 
"must  finally  seize  upon  the  entire  educational 
system  of  America.  We  must  practise  Kul- 


20  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

turpolitik  in  the  highest  and  noblest  sense." 
"Not  only  North  America,  but  the  whole  of 
America  must  become  the  bulwark  of  German 
ic  Kultur,"  exclaimed  a  prominent  Pan-Ger 
man  as  far  back  as  1906.  "It  should  be  the 
task  of  Germans  in  America  not  to  rest  until 
'Americanising'  means  the  same  thing  as  'Ger 
manising/  "  echoed  the  self -constituted  leaders 
of  the  German  element  in  the  United  States. 

Reviewing  in  1909  its  work  in  America,  the 
Society  for  Germanism  in  Foreign  Lands  was 
able  to  set  down  that  "had  this  annual  meeting 
brought  nothing  more  to  the  Verein  than  the 
inspiring  report  of  Germanism  in  North  Amer 
ica,  the  expressions  of  common  interests  and 
the  promises  for  future  co-operation,  those 
things  alone  would  have  been  of  immense  sig 
nificance  for  our  cause." 

The  war  between  Germany  and  the  United 
States  began  nominally  on  April  6th,  1917. 
In  reality  Germany  had  begun  her  scheme  of 
subjugation  at  least  twenty  years  ago. 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  21 


II 


CONDITIONS  FAVOURING  THE 
CONSPIRACY 

4 

CONDITIONS  in  America  have,  from  the  be 
ginning,  been  exceptionally  favourable  to  Ger 
many's  plans. 

In  1910  there  were  in  our  population  no  less 
than  twenty-five  millions  of  people  who  were 
either  wholly  or  partly  of  German  descent. 
Included  in  this  number  were  three  millions 
who  were  natives  of  Germany.  Among  the  lat 
ter  were  over  half  a  million  reservists — men, 
that  is  to  say,  who  had  received  at  least  one 
year  of  training  in  the  German  army  and  with 
whom  the  German  government,  through  her 
consular  officials,  kept  in  constant  touch  in  an 
ticipation  of  the  occasion  that  would  require 
their  services. 

Of  all  the  immigrations  to  the  United  States, 
that  from  Germany  has  continued  over  the 
longest  period,  and,  next  to  the  immigration 


22  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

from  the  British  Isles,  Has  contributed  the  larg 
est  number  to  our  population.  The  varying 
character  of  this  immigration  has  reflected 
pretty  accurately  the  conditions  in  the  home 
land.  Beginning  in  1683,  and  during  a  large 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  there  came 
the  sectaries  seeking  religious  liberty.  They 
brought  with  them  religious  enthusiasm  and 
sentimental  attachment  for  the  language  and 
customs  of  their  old  home,  but  they  were  en 
tirely  devoid  of  pride  of  country  and  of  na 
tional  consciousness.  It  was  community  of 
religious  beliefs,  rather  than  race  or  origin, 
that  led  them  to  establish  themselves  in  Penn 
sylvania,  New  York,  and  North  and  South 
Carolina  in  self -sufficient,  compact  communi 
ties. 

In  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
there  followed  the  political  idealists,  the  prod 
ucts  of  the  political  upheavals  of  1820  and  1832 
and  of  the  revolution  of  1848.  They  sought 
America  as  a  refuge  where  they  might  work 
out  the  national  aspirations  thwarted  by  the 
narrow  particularism  of  their  petty  princes. 
These  men,  graduates,  most  of  them,  of  Ger 
man  universities,  brought  with  them  an  intense 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  23 

pride  of  nationality  and  at  the  same  time  a  bit 
ter  hostility  for  the  political  and  social  condi 
tions  which  they  had  left  behind.  There  was 
nothing  in  the  institutions  of  the  Germany  of 
their  day  to  command  their  allegiance.  What 
they  hoped  for  was  an  ideal  Germany  in  Amer 
ica.  Under  the  influence  of  their  intense  na 
tionalism,  their  fellow-countrymen  in  the 
United  States  began  to  organise  themselves 
into  societies  on  racial  lines,  preserving 
thereby  those  things  which,  to  their  minds, 
made  up  the  Germany  of  their  dreams.  In 
1849,  there  was  organised  the  "National  Sang- 
erbund."  The  Turners  formed  a  national  or 
ganisation  in  1850;  and  so  it  was  with  many 
other  associations  in  which  intellectual  gym 
nastics  and  national  poetry  and  literature  were 
cultivated. 

But  the  great  waves  of  immigration,  which, 
gathering  volume  in  the  7o's,  finally  reached 
their  flood  in  the  8o's,  came  from  entirely  dif 
ferent  impulses.  What  these  millions  sought 
was  neither  religious  freedom  nor  political  lib 
erty,  but  economic  opportunity.  No  longer  as 
outcasts  or  as  refugees  did  they  enter  our 
gates,  but  as  representatives  of  an  empire  of 


24  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

whose  achievements  they  were  proud  and  of 
whose  future  they  vaguely  hoped  to  remain  a 
part.  They  combined  attachment  for  their 
language  and  traditions  with  intense  national 
consciousness  and  pride  of  country.  As  Ger 
man  power  and  prestige  in  Europe  increased, 
so  every  year  arriving  immigrants  manifested 
an  increasing  racial  solidarity  which  tended  to 
make  the  processes  of  assimilation  increasingly 
difficult.  They  clung  more  and  more  tena 
ciously  to  their  language  and  customs;  they 
drew  together  into  their  own  societies, 
churches,  and  groups  in  which  the  German 
language  was  used  and  in  which  the  intellectual 
outlook  was  obtained  through  a  German  lan 
guage  press. 

The  new  spirit  was  strikingly  manifested  in 
Wisconsin  some  twenty-five  years  ago.  In 
1888  William  Dempster  Hoard  was  elected 
governor.  He  discovered  that  forty-seven 
thousand  children,  constituting  fourteen  per 
centum  of  the  total  school  population  of  the 
state,  were  not  attending  school  at  all ;  further, 
that  in  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  German 
Lutheran  schools  the  pupils  were  receiving  no 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  25 

instruction  whatever  in  English,  the  language 
of  their  country. 

This  led  to  the  enactment  in  1889  of  the  so- 
called  Bennett  School  Law.  It  required  the 
attendance  of  all  children  between  the  ages  of 
seven  and  fourteen  years  upon  some  public  or 
private  day  school.  The  law  further  provided 
that  no  educational  institution  should  be  re 
garded  as  a  school  within  the  intent  of  the  act 
unless  there  were  taught  therein  reading,  writ 
ing,  arithmetic,  and  United  States  history 
through  the  medium  of  the  English  language. 

The  law  immediately  became  the  object  of 
the  most  bitter  attacks,  and  a  political  move 
ment  was  inaugurated  looking  to  its  repeal. 
Churches  having  parochial  schools  organised 
to  defeat  Governor  Hoard  at  the  polls.  Their 
opposition  accomplished  what  nothing  else  had 
succeeded  in  doing  since  the  days  of  Luther — 
it  united  the  German  Lutherans  and  German 
Catholics  in  one  political  party  for  one  pur 
pose.  Governor  Hoard  was  defeated  and  the 
Bennett  law  was  repealed.  Since  then  certain 
of  the  German  element  in  Wisconsin  have  fre 
quently  made  the  boast  that  their  state  is  the 
most  German  of  any  state  in  the  Union, — a 


26  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

statement  which  has  been  fully  endorsed  by 
the  action  of  the  Pan-German  League  in  list 
ing  Milwaukee  in  its  roster  of  German  Cities. 

From  the  beginning,  America  has  been  hos 
pitable  to  foreign  customs  and  ideas.  The  ties 
of  tradition  which  bound  the  colonies  to  Eng 
land  were  severed,  for  the  most  part,  by  the 
Revolutionary  War.  The  process  was  com 
pleted  by  the  War  of  1812.  Later  on,  the  diplo 
matic  difficulties  of  the  Civil  War — the  rec 
ognition  of  the  Southern  States,  the  "Trent 
Affair"  and  the  "Alabama  Claims" — served  to 
accentuate  in  American  life  a  surviving  preju 
dice  against  the  country  from  which  we  inher 
ited  the  institutions  we  prize  most  highly.  For 
fifty  years  the  sport  of  "twisting  the  lion's 
tail"  continued  to  be  the  favourite  device  of 
every  demagogue  and  cheap  politician  who 
wished  to  attract  attention.  The  further  the 
new  immigrants  pushed  into  the  wilderness 
and  out  onto  the  prairies,  the  less  was  there  of 
local  tradition  in  their  way,  and  the  conditions 
for  the  preservation  of  their  language  and  for 
maintaining  their  national  traditions  became 
the  more  favourable.  In  this  way  Wisconsin, 
Nebraska,  and  Missouri  received  a  German 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  27 

population  which  fostered,  without  opposition 
or  unfavourable  influences,  the  German  lan 
guage,  German  schools,  and  a  German  press. 
The  severance  of  English  traditions  had  a 
marked  influence  upon  the  educators  and  lead 
ers  of  thought  in  America.  There  was  no 
longer  any  attraction  of  sentiment  or  tradition 
to  draw  them  to  Oxford  or  Cambridge. 
Young  and  ambitious  scholars  felt  free  to  roam 
where  their  tastes  and  their  enthusiasms  at 
tracted  them.  Following  the  lead  of  George 
Ticknor,  Edward  Everett,  and  George  Ban 
croft,  American  scholars  began  to  visit  the 
Universities  of  Gottingen,  Berlin,  Leip^iq  and 
Halle.  Previous  to  1850  about  one  hundred 
Americans  had  enjoyed  the  advantages  of 
these  institutions.  During  the  latter  half  of 
the  century  the  number  increased  rapidly  every 
year  until  it  was  asserted  recently  that  there 
was  not  an  instructor  or  a  professor  in  any 
college  or  university  in  America  who  had  not 
either  studied  in  Germany  or  had  not  come 
under  the  influence  of  some  one  who  had  drunk 
at  the  fountain  of  German  learning.  "For 
forty  years/'  says  President  William  W.  Guth 
of  Goucher  College,  "Germany  has  so  influ- 


28  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

enced  our  own  scholars  and  given  many  of 
them  such  a  twist  mentally,  that  they  have  been 
unable  to  see  how  favourable  they  have  been  to 
ideas  and  opinions  purely  German." 
^The  thousands  of  professors  and  instructors 
who  had  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  German 
universities  were  destined  to  affect  profoundly 
American  sentiment^  Their  impressions  of 
Germany  were  received  through  the  glamour 
of  student  days, — at  a  time,  too,  when  the  phi 
losophy  of  Treitschke  and  of  Nietzsche,  and 
the  applications  of  Bernhardi  had  not,  as  yet, 
been  solidified  into  a  national  creed.  Germany 
for  them  was  still  the  land  of  romance  and  of 
poetry,  the  land  of  the  universities  and  of  pro 
found  scholarship.  The  old  watchwords, 
Wissenschaft,  Lernfreiheit,  and  Lehrfreiheit, 
still  resounded  in  their  ears,  though  long  since 
silenced  in  the  land  that  gave  them  birth;  (they 
failed  to  recognise  in  modern  Germany  the 
Frankenstein  that  had  created  in  the  state  a 
monster  devoid  of  all  ethical  principle  and 
moral  restraint — a  monster  which  was  even 
then  destroyingj;he  fairest  children  of  the  Ger 
man  heart.  'Even  those  who,  like  Benjamin 
Ide  Wheeler,  listened  to  the  lectures  of  Treit- 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  29 

schke  failed  to  appraise  the  work  and  influence 
of  this  mighty  artificer.  The  real  Germany, 
as  he  confessed  four  years  ago  in  the  Father 
land,  was  still  the  Germany  of  the  universities, 
— the  Germany  of  the  army,  of  the  govern 
ment,  of  law  and  order,  was  merely  the  outer 
shell  which  made  the  inner  life  possible^  he 
recounts  an  interview  which  he  had  with  the 
Kaiser  in  Potsdam  in  June,  1913,  and  concludes 
with  the  statement  that  "whoever  is  responsible 
for  bringing  about  the  war  or  letting  it  come 
about,  bears  before  the  high  court  of  humanity 
a  heavy  indictment.  .  .  .  But  whoever  it  was 
and  whatever  it  was,  and  however  the  blame 
may  be  apportioned  among  various  men  and 
organisations  of  men,  this  much  can  now  be 
asserted  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt — the 
war  came  about  against  the  interests,  against 
the  desires,  and  against  the  efforts  of  the  Ger 
man  Kaiser." 

These  scholars  Germany  prepared  to  use  as  a 
support  for  her  policy.  In  1902  Prince  Henry 
made  his  memorable  visit  to  the  United  States. 
Four  hundred  Komniilitonen,  former  students 
of  German  universities,  banqueted  in  his 
honour  in  New  York  City.  Amid  toasts  and 


30  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

speeches,  mighty  salamanders  and  telegrams  of 
congratulation  to  the  Kaiser,  their  Kommilito 
of  Bonn  University,  the  "Union  of  Old  German 
Students"  (Vereinigung  alter  deutscher  Stu 
dent  en  in  Amerika),  came  into  being.  From 
that  time  on  its  annual  banquets -and  Kommers 
served  to  strengthen  and  keep  alive  the  impres 
sions  of  student  days.  "These  Americans  who 
have  attended  German  universities  are  perma 
nently  inoculated  with  the  German  virus/'  ex 
claimed  Carl  Beck,  the  first  president  of  the 
Union.  "They  have  only  good  things  to  tell 
of  Germany.  Even  for  German  immoralities 
they  have  words  of  extenuation — yes,  they  go 
so  far  in  their  courtesies  as  even  to  imitate  our 
faults!" 

Then  came  the  exchange  professorships.  In 
1904  Harvard  entered  into  an  arrangement 
with  the  Prussian  Ministry  of  Education 
whereby  one  of  its  professors  and  one  from 
Berlin  University  should,  every  year,  enter  for 
three  months  the  teaching  staff  of  the  other 
institution.  Soon  thereafter  the  Kaiser  of 
fered  to  extend  the  scope  of  the  agreement  to 
other  universities  in  America  and  Germany. 
Columbia  took  advantage  of  the  offer  in  1905. 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  31 

James  Speyer  endowed  still  another  exchange 
professorship  at  the  University  of  Berlin.  In 
1912  Jacob  H.  Schiff  presented  the  German 
Department  of  Cornell  University  with  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  as  a  foundation  for 
the  promotion  of  German  Kultur  in  America. 
In  1911  Wisconsin  citizens  of  German  descent 
raised  a  fund  of  thirty  thousand  dollars  and 
gave  it  in  trust  to  the  regents  of  the  state  uni 
versity  "for  the  maintenance  of  a  professor's 
chair,  to  be  known  as  the  Carl  Schurz  Memo 
rial  Professorship,  which  is  to  be  filled  from 
time  to  time  and  for  such  lengths  of  time  as 
will  be  found  advisable  by  visiting  professors 
of  recognised  character  and  standing  from  the 
universities  of  Germany."  The  University  of 
Chicago  also  instituted  an  informal  exchange 
of  lecturers. 

It  is  more  than  doubtful  that  the  exchange 
professorships  contributed  in  any  way  to  schol 
arship.  Even  in  Germany  they  were  regarded 
as  a  sort  of  court  hobby,  a  good  publicity  enter 
prise.  In  most  American  universities,  it  is 
said,  they  proved  absolute  failures.  But  they 
did  aid  German  purposes.  Such  men  as  Eu 
gene  Kuehnemann,  Eduard  Meyer,  Moritz  J. 


32  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

Bonn,  and  Hermann  Oncken  stepped  aside 
from  their  purely  academic  duties  to  spread  the 
tenets  of  Pan-Germanism  among  their  coun 
trymen  in  America.  The  American  professors, 
falling  victims  to  the  attention  they  received  in 
Germany,  became  infected  with  the  virus  of 
modern  Germanism  and  upon  their  return 
spread  the  infection  among  their  colleagues. 
How  else  can  one  account  for  the  strange  men 
tal  twist  that  caused  such  a  profound  student 
of  constitutional  history  as  John  W:  Burgess 
to  tell  his  countrymen  that  "there  is  no  longer 
a  British  constitution  according  to  American 
ideas  of  constitutional  government.  ...  In 
this  only  true  sense  of  constitutional  govern 
ment  the  British  government  is  a  despot 
ism.  .  .  .  The  Russian  economic  and  political 
systems  have  more  points  of  likeness  with  the 
British  than  is  usually  conceded"  ?  How  other 
wise  could  he  have  been  brought  to  tell  Ameri 
cans  that  "down  to  August  i,  1914,  German 
diplomacy,  backed  by  German  militarism,  had 
been  able  to  keep  the  peril  from  the  east  and 
from  the  west  apart  and  to  give  to  Continental 
Europe  such  a  period  of  peace  and  prosperity 
as  it  had  never  before  enjoyed,  but  on  that 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  33 

eventful  day  British  diplomacy  triumphed  over 
German  diplomacy  and  sealed  the  union  by 
British  determination  to  destroy  the  naval  and 
commercial  power  of  Germany"? 

Among  the  men  who  had  been  appointed  to 
lectureships  in  her  universities  Germany  found 
her  most  effective  apologists.  Their  testimony 
was  given  again  and  again  through  the  subsi 
dised  pages  of  the  Fatherland,  on  the  lecture 
platform,  and  through  the  publications  of  the 
"German  University  League."  Their  names 
were  used  repeatedly  in  the  movements  engi 
neered  by  German  agents  for  Germany's  ad 
vantage.  They  appeared  on  the  roster  of  such 
camouflaged  organisations  as  the  "Friends  of 
Peace/'  the  "American  Independence  Union," 
the  " American  Embargo  Conference"  and  the 
"Printers  and  Publishers  Association." 

Members  of  the  German  departments  in  our 
universities,  as  time  went  by,  confined  them 
selves  less  and  less  to  the  teaching  of  German 
language  and  of  German  literature.  As  Pro 
fessor  H.  C.  G.  von  Jagemann  expressed  it, 
"They  conceived  their  true  function  to  be  not 
merely  to  teach  the  German  language,  or  even 
German  literature,  however  important  these 


34  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

might  be,  but  to  give  their  students  a  true  con 
ception  of  what  Germany  stands  for  in  modern 
civilisation,  what  her  ideals  have  been  and 
what  she  has  contributed  to  the  world's  best 
intellectual  possessions." 

Carrying  out  this  conception,  learned  socie 
ties  were  founded,  such  as  the  "Germanistic 
Society  of  America/'  with  headquarters  in 
New  York,  and  the  "Germanistic  Society  of 
Chicago,"  both  having  for  their  expressed  ob 
jects  the  "promotion  of  the  knowledge  of  Ger 
man  civilisation  in  America  and  of  American 
civilisation  in  Germany" — and  both  ignoring 
the  latter  object  and  devoting  all  their  efforts 
to  spreading  German  ideas.  So  marked  did 
this  tendency  become  that  Professor  John  F. 
Coar  refused  election  to  the  board  of  directors 
of  the  New  York  Society  unless  some  attention 
was  given  to  familiarising  men  in  Germany 
with  things  American. 

To  more  adequately  foster  the  German 
spirit,  "German  houses"  were  established  at 
Wisconsin,  Columbia,  and  other  institutions; 
German  clubs  were  founded,  like  that  at  Cor 
nell,  expressive  of  "the  newly  awakened  na 
tional  consciousness  of  the  Germans  in  the 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  35 

United  States."  At  Cornell,  the  club  dis 
tributed  war  literature,  conducted  discussions 
of  war  topics,  and  corrected  misapprehensions 
as  to  "the  righteous  German  cause/'  All  these 
societies  were  finally  amalgamated  into  the  "In 
tercollegiate  League  of  German  Clubs."  The 
league  came  completely  under  German  influ 
ence  when,  at  its  1915  convention,  it  reduced 
its  advisory  board  from  twelve  to  three  mem 
bers  and  appointed  as  these  three  an  exchange 
professor  of  violent  pro-German  tendencies, 
now  under  indictment  for  treason,  an 
other  professor  from  New  York  University, 
also  violently  pro-German,  and  a  member  of 
Germany's  subsidised  and  official  propaganda 
board. 

It  was  an  easy  step  from  the  attitude  ex 
pressed  by  Professor  von  Jagemann  to  active 
propaganda  for  German  policies  which  came 
to  characterise  the  class  rooms  of  many  Ger 
man  departments.  From  this  many  instruc 
tors  proceeded  to  active  participation  in  what 
became  known  as  the  "German  movement  in 
America." 

American  universities  offered  little  to  coun 
teract  this  growing  obsession  of  Germanism. 


36  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

For  years  the  elective  plan — a  plan  which  per 
mitted  a  student  to  choose  his  college  course 
pretty  much  according  to  his  inclinations  and 
his  private  advantage — had  been  running  riot. 
The  State  was  thus  neglecting  a  most  potent 
resource  of  its  own  life.  To  secure  the  con 
tinuity  of  that  life,  to  protect  it  against  hostile 
machinations,  and  to  insure  its  development  by 
evolution  rather  than  by  revolution,  the  State 
should,  in  justice  to  itself,  demand  that  every 
one  who  profits  by  the  education  which  it  af 
fords  study  the  history  and  nature  of  its  own 
being.  It  has  been  well  said  that  "the  roots 
of  the  present  lie  deep  in  the  past,  and  nothing 
in  the  past  is  dead  to  the  man  who  would  learn 
how  the  present  came  to  be  what  it  is."  A 
student  who  has  made  this  study  appreciates 
the  painful  processes  by  which  humanity  has 
advanced;  he  realises  how  history  records  no 
short  cuts  and  no  magic  formulae  for  improv 
ing  the  condition  of  men ;  he  understands  how, 
in  our  institutions  to-day,  imperfect  though 
they  may  be,  there  are  nevertheless  embodied 
the  fervent  hopes,  the  sacrifices,  and  the  lives 
of  thousands  in  the  past.  With  such  a  his 
torical  background  he  is  less  inclined  to  barter 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  37 

his  birthright  for  any  chance  mess  of  pottage 
brewed  by  a  political  or  an  economic  quack,  or 
by  a  foreign  propagandist,  however  savoury  it 
may  be.  Without  such  a  retrospect  our  young 
men  fall  easy  victims  to  any  plausible  vagary 
that  ignores  history  and  whose  only  postulate 
is  a  pious  wish. 

To  a  business  man  who  has  been  permitted 
to  view  our  universities  from  the  outside,  it 
would  seem  that  the  inherent  weakness  of  the 
elective  system  has  been  largely  responsible 
for  the  marked  obsession  for  all  things  German 
which  has  characterised  our  universities  in  the 
past.  It  was  responsible  also  for  another  ten 
dency,  a  tendency  towards  a  shallow,  supercili 
ous  cosmopolitanism.  The  man  who  knows 
least  about  his  own  country,  and  who,  for  that 
very  reason,  knows  nothing  about  any  other, 
is  always  prone  to  advertise  his  utter  useless- 
ness  as  a  citizen  in  any  community  by  loudly 
proclaiming  himself  a  citizen  of  all.  So  we 
had  the  cosmopolitan  movement  in  our  univer 
sities  beginning  with  the  founding  of  a  cos 
mopolitan  club  at  the  university  of  Wisconsin 
in  1902.  A  year  later  a  similar  club  was  es 
tablished  at  Cornell.  The  idea  spread  to  other 


38  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

universities  and  in  1907  an  association  of  cos 
mopolitan  clubs  was  formed  at  Madison.  In 
1913  an  international  congress  was  called  at 
Ithaca,  New  York,  for  the  purpose  of  "bring 
ing  together  the  representatives  from  all  the 
students  of  the  world  in  order  that  the  spirit 
of  international  brotherhood  and  humanity 
may  be  fostered  among  them  and  in  order  that 
the  students  of  the  world  might  be  united  into 
an  all-embracing  world  organisation'* — thus 
Louis  P.  Lochner. 

In  this  environment  of  unhistorical  thinking 
and  shallow  cosmopolitanism,  pacifism  readily 
took  root.  Pacifist  societies,  such  as  the  "Colle 
giate  anti-Militarism  League/'  flourished.  Such 
men  as  President  David  Starr  Jordan,  Pro 
fessor  H.  W.  L.  Dana,  Dr.  John  H.  Holmes, 
and  Scott  Nearing  posed  as  the  leaders.  They 
drew  unto  them  an  assortment  of  callow  youth 
intent  on  advertising  their  mental  aberrations 
on  the  soap  box,  on  the  platform  and  in  the 
prisoner's  dock,  just  as  certain  fakirs  in  the 
Orient  take  an  unctuous  delight  in  displaying 
their  deformities  to  an  adoring  entourage.  It 
was  entirely  within  the  logic  of  events  that 
Henry  Ford,  the  multi-millionaire  manufac- 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  39 

turer,  who,  as  he  said,  "never  read  history,  and 
had  no  time  or  interest  for  anything  in  the 
past,"  and  Louis  P.  Lochner,  the  secretary  of 
the  "Association  of  Cosmopolitan  Clubs," 
should  join  forces,  the  one  in  financing,  and 
the  other  in  piloting  the  "peace  ship."  To 
gether  they  assembled  the  picturesque  cargo 
of  long-haired  men,  short-haired  women  and 
shallow  sentimentalists,  and  exhibited  them  to 
the  countries  then  at  death  grips  for  the  preser 
vation  of  their  historical  heritage, — a  piece  of 
comedy  equalled  only  by  the  tragedy  implied 
in  its  utter  lack  of  sympathy  and  understand 
ing. 

The  entire  peace  movement  in  America,  no 
less  than  its  aberration  of  pacifism,  was  viewed 
with  feelings  of  contempt  in  Germany. 
Eduard  Meyer,  professor  of  ancient  history  in 
the  University  of  Berlin,  who  visited  Harvard 
as  exchange  professor  in  1909,  and  who  on 
other  visits  had  become  widely  acquainted  in 
the  college  faculties  of  the  country,  sneered  at 
us  for  "cherishing  the  delusion  that  Hague 
conferences  and  similar  mummeries,  the  hallu 
cination  of  world  brotherhood,  could  furnish 
the  panacea  destined  to  bring  about  the  millen- 


40  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

nium  of  universal  peace."  He  attributed  the 
peace  movement  in  America  principally  to 
avarice  and  self-interest,  the  anxiety  of  Ameri 
cans  to  escape  the  burdens  of  taxation  and 
personal  service  involved  in  preparedness  for 
war,  and  also  to  a  "certain  effeminate  senti- 
mentalism  which  prevails  among  the  educated 
classes — a  feeling  which  is  aided  by  the  circum 
stance  that  the  education  of  the  youth  in  the 
primary  and  secondary  schools  is  almost  en 
tirely  in  the  hands  of  women." 

At  the  same  time  the  peace  sentiment,  to 
gether  with  its  morbid  manifestations,  were 
exploited  to  the  utmost  for  Germany's  advan 
tage.  To  render  ineffective  the  strong  pro- 
ally  sentiment  which  developed  upon  the  spoli 
ation  of  Belgium,  it  was  necessary  to  render 
America  innocuous.  Under  cover  of  pacifist 
sympathies,  pamphleteers  in  the  pay  of  the 
German  embassy  assailed  the  National  Secu 
rity  League  and  the  Navy  League.  That 
German  troops  might  slaughter  Belgians  and 
Frenchmen  and  Britishers  in  safety  and  with 
out  fear  of  retribution,  German  agents  de 
claimed  against  the  inhumanity  of  the  munition 
traffic.  Their  dupes  and  pacifist  allies  in  the 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  41 

pulpit  and  on  the  platform,  piously  admonished 
"thou  shalt  not  kill"  and  spread  Germany's 
propaganda  for  an  embargo.  The  convention 
of  the  Friends  of  Peace  in  Chicago  in  1915, 
which  attracted  educators  and  clergymen  from 
all  parts  of  the  United  States,  was  engineered 
by  a  self-confessed  spy,  now  interned;  a  simi 
lar  convention  in  San  Francisco  was  directed 
by  a  hireling  of  the  German  consulate. 


THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 


III 


THE  UNDERMINING  OF  AMERICAN 
EDUCATION 

IN  spite  of  the  favourable  conditions  in 
America,  the  German  conspiracy  would  not 
have  succeeded  except  for  the  efforts  of  the 
exceedingly  able  men  who,  in  ever  increasing 
numbers,  came  from  Germany  to  occupy 
chairs  in  our  universities,  important  positions 
in  industry,  banking,  and  in  the  editorial  offices 
of  German  language  newspapers,  and  to  fill  the 
pulpits  of  German  churches.  These  men  had 
drunk  deep  of  modern  German  philosophy  and 
were  completely  obsessed  by  Pan-German  am 
bitions  and  by  Germany's  manifest  destiny  of 
world  power.  The  great  mass  of  the  popula 
tion  of  German  descent  had  little  in  common 
with  them  and  little  interest  in  their  schemes — 
they  were  satisfied  with  America  and  with  its 
opportunities  and  were  willing  to  forget  the  old 
country.  Left  to  themselves  they  would  in  a 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  48 

few  years  have  become  assimilated  in  our  popu 
lation.  The  second  generation  invariably  be 
came  most  eager  and  whole-hearted  in  their 
Americanism.  Even  the  opposition  to  the 
Bennett  Law,  in  Wisconsin,  had  little  immedi 
ate  political  significance.  It  was  rather  expres 
sive  of  the  attachment  of  a  population,  largely 
of  German  birth,  for  the  language  of  their 
fatherland.  The  German  names  which  have 
appeared  in  every  casualty  list  of  our  armies 
are  convincing  testimonials  of  the  genuine  pa 
triotism  of  the  great  majority  of  our  citizens 
of  German  descent. 

What  came  to  be  known  as  the  "German 
movement  in  America" — a  movement  which 
aimed  at  the  consolidation  in  one  compact  bloc, 
racially,  economically,  and  politically  of  the  en 
tire  German  element  in  the  United  States,  and 
the  definite  relation  of  that  bloc  to  the  German 
advance  to  world  power — did  not  have  its  ori 
gin  among  the  laymen.  An  attempt  had  been 
made  as  far  back  as  1885  to  strengthen  and 
perpetuate  German  schools  through  an  organi 
sation  known  as  the  "National  German-Ameri 
can  School  Alliance/'  This,  however,  encoun 
tered  opposition  from  the  beginning.  Most 


44  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

German-Americans,  while  they  favoured  the 
propaganda  for  the  German  language  in  parts 
of  Austria  and  Hungary,  could  see  no  reason 
for  such  a  movement  in  the  United  States,  and 
the  school  alliance  disintegrated. 

Those  responsible  for  the  German  movement 
were  not  the  laymen,  but  the  intellectuals,  pri 
marily  the  scholars  occupying  positions  in 
American  universities.  As  far  back  as  1886 
an  instructor  in  Johns  Hopkins  University  had 
urged  a  union  of  all  Germans  in  the  United 
States  for  the  maintenance  of  Germanism  and 
the  preservation  of  the  German  language. 
The  idea  was  discussed  and  kept  alive  in  aca 
demic  circles,  but  it  was  not  until  some  time 
after  the  Spanish- American  War  that  the  oc 
casion  seemed  opportune  for  its  realisation. 

The  action  of  the  German  Admiral  Dieder- 
ichs  in  dogging  Admiral  Dewey's  movements 
in  Manila  Bay  naturally  aroused  intense  re 
sentment  in  the  United  States.  This  was  in 
tensified  when  it  became  known  that  early  in 
1898,  when  war  with  Spain  seemed  inevitable, 
the  German  ambassador  in  Washington  had 
attempted  to  form  a  coalition  of  European  gov 
ernments  for  the  purpose  of  extorting  a  prom- 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  45 

ise  from  the  United  States  not  to  violate  the 
integrity  of  the  Spanish  colonial  empire. 

In  contrast  with  the  popular  resentment  to 
wards  Germany  was  the  rapidly  developing 
entente  with  Great  Britain.  The  administra 
tion  of  distant  colonial  possessions,  inhabited 
by  foreign  races,  placed  the  United  States  in  a 
.situation  analogous  to  that  occupied  by  Great 
Britain,  and  an  increasing  sympathy  between 
the  English  speaking  nations  became  manifest. 
We,  too,  were  taking  up  the  white  man's  bur 
den.  Anglo-Saxon  brotherhood  was  celebrated 
in  prose  and  verse;  Anglo-Saxon  leadership 
and  prestige  were  acclaimed.  Cecil  Rhodes 
realised  the  spirit  of  the  times  in  providing  Ox 
ford  scholarships  for  the  best,  all-'round  prod 
ucts  of  American  universities;  thus  the  bonds 
between  the  two  great  nations  would  be  drawn 
closer  year  by  year. 

A  most  serious  threat  was  presented  to  Ger 
many's  plans.  With  an  Anglo-Saxon  entente 
making  its  power  and  influence  felt  in  every 
part  of  the  globe,  the  opportunity  for  world 
power  would  be  forever  lost, — the  only  alterna 
tive  was  downfall. 

The  intellectuals  among  the  German  element 


46  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

in  the  United  States  affected  to  see  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  entente  a  reflection  upon  their 
Teutonic  character ;  in  this  light  they  presented 
it  to  their  countrymen  through  the  press  and 
from  the  platform.  It  was  the  policy  of  "im 
perialism"  that  had  brought  the  two  branches 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  together,  and  against 
"imperialism/'  not  as  a  policy,  but  in  its  racial 
aspect,  they  directed  their  attack.  They  joined 
forces,  but  from  different  motives,  with  those 
who  opposed  imperialism  on  constitutional  and 
humanitarian  grounds. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Ijerman  move 
ment  in  America.  "In  this  manner,"  says 
Professor  Julius  Goebel,  "the  feeling  of  unity 
among  German-Americans  was  made  to  blaze 
out  brilliantly,  and  the  way  was  prepared  for 
the  organisation  of  the  'National  German- 
American  Alliance/  ' 

Organisations  of  every  kind  have  always 
been  a  feature  of  German  life  in  America. 
The  National  Sangerbund,  the  National  Turn 
er  Alliance,  the  German-American  Teachers' 
Alliance,  organized  in  1870,  have  already  been 
mentioned.  In  addition  there  have  been  asso 
ciations  of  German  veterans  and  reservists, 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  47 

many  mutual  aid  and  benefit  societies,  societies 
of  Swabians,  Bavarians,  and  those  coming 
from  other  states,  and  innumerable  other  or 
ganisations. 

In  1899,  most  of  the  Pennsylvania  organisa 
tions  became  federated  in  an  alliance.  This 
suggested  a  national  organisation  and,  in  1900, 
delegates  from  German  societies  in  Ohio, 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland  and  Minnesota  as 
sembled  in  Philadelphia  and  formed  a  tem 
porary  association.  On  October  6,  1901,  a 
permanent  organisation  was  perfected,  known 
as  the  "National  German-American  Alliance," 
and  this  achievement  prominent  Germans,  both 
in  the  United  States  and  in  the  Fatherland, 
have  proclaimed  as  of  the  utmost  consequence 
for  the  future  of  Germanism  in  America. 

The  organisation  immediately  entered  into 
friendly  relations  with  the  Pan-German 
League  (Alldeutscher  Verband)  and  with  the 
General  School  Alliance  (Allgemeinerdeutscher 
Schulverein  zur  Erhaltung  des  Deutschthums 
im  Auslande).  It  became  the  mouthpiece  of 
Pan-German  ideas  in  America.  The  Propa 
gandists  of  world  dominion  in  Germany 
boasted  of  the  superiority  of  their  Kultur,  de- 


48  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

nounced  the  Latin  races  as  suffering  in  the  last 
stages  of  decadence,  described  the  British  as 
hopelessly  addicted  to  sport  and  besotted 
through  wealth  and  luxury ;  the  Germans  were 
the  one  race  singled  out  by  Providence  to  res 
cue  civilisation.  In  the  same  way  the  leaders 
of  the  National  German-American  Alliance 
extolled  the  superiority  of  the  German  ele 
ment,  painted  in  lurid  colours  the  lust  for 
money,  the  hypocrisy,  the  contempt  for  law 
and  constituted  authority,  the  cowardly  sub 
mission  to  public  opinion,  and  the  superfi 
ciality  of  American  life;  it  was  their  patriotic 
mission  to  impress  their  characteristics  upon 
the  decadent  American,  or  Anglo-American, 
section  of  the  population  and  save  the  country. 
In  Germany  they  preached  that  decadent  civili 
sations,  in  the  divine  order  of  things,  must 
give  way  to  Kultur;  in  America,  that  moribund 
Anglo-Saxonism  must  be  replaced  by  the  Ger 
man  spirit.  As  Professor  Voss  of  the  Univer 
sity  of  Wisconsin  expressed  it,  "It  is  the  beau 
tiful  and  profitable  task  of  German- Americans 
to  prepare  the  way  in  this  country  for  the  Ger 
man  spirit  and  the  German  conception  of  life." 
In  Germany  they  taught  their  people  that  they 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  49 

were  surrounded  by  enemies:  Great  Britain 
was  stimulated  by  commercial  jealousy  and 
France  by  the  revanche;  in  America,  that  the 
Anglo-American  section  of  the  population  was 
envious  of  their  success  and  of  their  sterling 
qualities  and  that  they  must  band  together  in 
order  to  resist  the  encroachments  and  the  en 
mity  of  the  so-called  "nativists."  Germany  at 
tempted  to  bring  about  an  entente  with  Ireland ; 
she  sent  her  agents  to  the  Emerald  Isle,  and 
Irish  school  children  were  taught  to  declaim 
against  the  tyrant  of  the  seas  and  to  acclaim  the 
day  when  that  tyranny  would  be  broken  by  a 
rising  naval  power,  and  Ireland  would  be  given 
her  freedom;  in  America  the  leaders  industri 
ously  cultivated  the  Irish  element  and  flattered 
their  anti-English  prejudices.  In  1907,  the  Na 
tional  German-American  Alliance  formed  a 
working  agreement  for  common  action  with 
the  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  and,  in  con 
junction  with  this  organisation,  opposed  and 
defeated  the  arbitration  treaties  with  Great 
Britain  negotiated  under  the  direction  of  Presi 
dent  Taft.  Every  effort  of  Germany  to  bring 
about  closer  co-operation  with  Ireland  has  re 
acted  in  renewed  efforts  for  closer  co-operation 


50  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

on  the  part  of  leaders  of  the  German  movement 
in  America  with  those  of  Irish  descent.  In 
Germany,  England  was  proclaimed  as  a  com 
mon  enemy;  in  America,  the  Anglo-Saxons. 

The  organisers  of  the  alliance  went  into 
every  state  and  community  of  the  land.  They 
went  to  all  the  singing  societies,  gymnastic  or 
ganisations,  social  clubs  and  church  brother 
hoods  of  every  denomination.  Distinctions  of 
religion  were  of  no  moment — the  supreme 
unity  was  their  common  Germanism.  Local 
organisations  they  banded  together  into  city 
alliances,  the  various  city  alliances  they  feder 
ated  into  state  alliances,  and  the  state  alliances 
they  bound  together  as  constituent  members 
of  the  National  German-American  Alliance. 
The  work  received  a  tremendous  impetus  from 
the  visit  of  Prince  Henry  and  from  the  numer 
ous  banquets,  celebrations  and  speeches  of 
which  it  was  the  occasion.  The  Germanic 
Museum  at  Harvard  added  its  impetus.  Was 
not  this  collection  of  casts  and  sculptures  rep 
resentative  of  the  glories  and  achievements  of 
their  race,  and  did  it  not  call  upon  every  man 
of  German  blood  to  claim  his  part  in  his  racial 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  51 

heritage  and  to  preserve  to  the  utmost  his 
racial  individuality? 

The  work  was  pushed  until  a  state  organi 
sation  had  been  completed  for  every  state  and 
also  for  the  territory  of  Hawaii.  In  1916,  the 
alliance  claimed  a  membership  of  two  and  a 
half  million  and  the  control  of  over  two  and 
a  half  million  votes.  In  1907,  posing  as  an 
"educational  and  patriotic  organisation,"  it 
hoodwinked  Congress  into  giving  it  a  special 
charter  of  incorporation.  From  that  time  on 
the  legend  "Incorporated  by  Act  of  Congress" 
appeared  on  all  the  literature  of  the  organisa 
tion.  In  this  way  the  government  of  the 
United  States  was  to  become  a  party  to  its  own 
undoing. 

With  this  organisation,  and  assisted  by  am 
ple  funds  provided  by  the  brewers  and  liquor 
dealers  of  the  United  States,  the  leaders  aimed 
to  consolidate  all  those  of  German  descent  into 
one  racial,  political,  and  economic  bloc.  "The 
National  German-American  Alliance  aims  to 
bring  about  this  unity  of  feeling  in  the  popu 
lation  of  German  origin  in  America,  and  if  it 
only  approximates  its  aim,  namely  the  cen- 


52  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

tralisation  of  the  German-American  element, 
it  will  nevertheless  have  accomplished  as  great 
a  work  as  was  performed  in  1871  by  the  Iron 
Chancellor."  They  aimed  to  perfect,  as  they 
said,  in  their  new  home  a  secure  support  for 
German  Kultur,  thereby  to  enhance  the  glory 
of  their  race — "and  the  sooner  the  Germans  in 
foreign  lands  come  together  for  defence  and 
offence,  the  more  easily  and  the  more  purely 
will  Germanism  be  preserved."  They  urged 
the  German  immigrant  to  become  naturalised 
and  to  acquire  the  right  to  vote  at  the  earliest 
opportunity,  but  at  the  same  time,  they  im 
pressed  him  with  the  thought  that  he  should 
become  American  only  in  a  political  and  geo 
graphical  sense  and  that  in  all  other  things — 
in  feeling,  in  sentiment,  and  in  language — he 
should  remain  German.  (The  idea  is  well  ex 
pressed  in  a  speech  delivered  by  Professor 
Goebel  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  |  to  the 
"United  German  Societies  of  New  York,"  on 
May  27th,  1912.  This  speech  later  appeared 
in  a  volume  of  Professor  Goebers  speeches  and 
essays,  published  in  Germany  in  1914.  He 
says; 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  53 

A  few  years  ago  there  appeared,  under  the 
title  "The  Melting  Pot,"  a  drama  in  which 
the  author,  c.a  well-known  Zionist,  Israel 
Zangwilljannounced  as  the  final  conclusion 
of  all  wisdom,  that  America  was  the  great 
Melting  Pot  in  which  the  different  races  and 
Nationalities,  with  everything  that  distin 
guished  them — their  languages,  their  inheri 
tances,  their  views,  and  their  customs — 
would  be  thrown  in  order  that  in  that  Melt 
ing  Pot  they  should  be  transformed  into 
"Americans."  For  us  German-Americans 
this  preachment  of  this  play  denotes  a  mix 
ture  of  empty  phrase  and  unhistorical  think 
ing.  It  represents  the  very  opposite  of  what 
we  are  striving  for,  and  [this  ideal  of  the 
Melting  Pot  must  be  opposed  and  defeated 
by  us  the  more  decisively  the  more  enthusi 
astically  it  is  taken  up  by  the  thoughtless 
rabble.  .  .  .  We  do  not  need  to  permit  our 
selves  to  be  remoulded  and  transformed  in 
to  "Americans/'  but  we  are  Americans  in  a 
political  sense,  and  in  that  sense  alone,  when 
we  take  our  oath  of  allegiance  and  unite 
ourselves  to  the  great  body  of  our  German- 
American  racial  kin.  .  .  . 

Thanks  to  German  resistance,  the  Roman 
Empire  perished  under  the  hallucination 
that  it  could  suppress  or  even  annihilate  the 
individuality  and  the  peculiar  life  of  differ- 


54  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

ent  races  in  order  to  subject  them  to  the  yoke 
of  a  common  language  as  of  a  common  state 
and  political  organisation.  The  open  or 
concealed  attempt  to  submerge  our  German 
racial  individuality — that  is,  our  speech,  our 
customs,  and  conceptions — in  the  slop 
kitchen  of  a  national  Melting  Pot  has  its  ori 
gin  in  the  same  hallucination  and  will  also, 
though  it  may  be  in  a  different  manner,  be 
bitterly  avenged. 

In  this  way  was  the  spirit  of  the  Delbriick 
Law  implanted  in  America  by  a  man  holding  a 
chair  in  an  American  university  and  supported 
by  American  taxpayers! 

How  was  this  solidarity  of  the  German  ele 
ment  to  be  achieved?  Primarily  by  conserv 
ing  the  German  language,  for,  as  Fichte  said, 
"What  the  root  is  to  the  tree,  that  the  German 
language  is  to  Germans."  "Racial  individual 
ity  and  speech  are  inseparately  related/'  de 
clared  the  Alliance.  "If  we  wish  to  preserve 
the  former  for  ourselves  and  our  descendants, 
then  we  must  cultivate  and  guard  the  latter  as 
a  priceless  possession." 

For  the  older  people,  those  born  in  Germany, 
this  could  be  effected  by  fostering  the  German 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  55 

language  press,  German  churches,  and  the  Ger 
man  stage.  But  in  view  of  the  fact  that  Ger 
man  immigration  practically  ceased  in  the  year 
1900,  it  became  necessary  to  do  something 
more  in  order  to  preserve  the  Germanism  of 
America  from  extinction.  With  the  cessation 
of  the  stream  of  immigration,  it  became  neces 
sary  to  make  sure  of  the  second  generation, 
and  also  to  win  adherents  among  the  other  ele 
ments  of  the  population.  "We  must  assure 
ourselves  of  the  youth  of  the  land,"  declared 
the  president  of  the  National  Alliance  to  a 
convention  of  the  Pennsylvania  branch — "not 
only  the  German  Americans,  but  the  entire 
youth." 

The  rising  generation  was  thus  marked  for 
German  propaganda  and  the  means  of  reach 
ing  the  youth  was  obviously  through  the 
schools,  both  private  and  denominational,  and 
the  public  schools  of  the  land.  "For  the 
preservation  of  Germanism  in  the  United 
States  nothing  is  more  necessary  than  the 
preservation  and  creation  of  German  schools," 
declared  the  Alliance  at  its  convention  in  1903. 
"The  mission  of  the  German  schoolmaster  in 
America  is  not  fulfilled  by  far,  it  is  only  be- 


56  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

gun."  What  was  ultimately  hoped  for  these 
schools  was  expressed  in  an  article  in  the  offi 
cial  organ  of  the  Alliance,  the  "German-Amer 
ican  Annals,"  edited  by  professors  of  the  lead 
ing  universities  of  the  country: 

Only  through  the  preservation  of  the  Ger 
man  language  can  our  race  in  this  land  be 
preserved  from  entire  disappearance.  The 
principal  aim  should  be  the  founding  of  in 
dependent  parochial  schools  in  which  the 
language  of  instruction  would  be  German, 
with  English  as  the  foreign  language  .  .  . 
and  when  these  schools  have  once  shown  that 
they  can  offer  as  much  as  the  public  schools 
and  that  they  are  under  the  direction  of 
trained,  thorough  teachers,  then  activity 
could  be  taken  in  the  direction  of  securing 
for  them  financial  support  from  the  state, 
as  in  the  case  of  public  schools. 

But  the  leaders  of  the  German  movement 
did  not  await  the  slow  process  of  establishing 
the  prestige  of  German  schools  and  securing 
for  them  state  aid.  They  undertook  to  operate 
directly  upon  the  public  school  system.  "Strict 
control  of  the  public  schools  is  necessary,"  they 
declared,  and  early  in  the  career  of  the  Alii- 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  57 

ance,  the  following  programme  was  laid  down : 

1.  The  teaching  of  the  German  language  in 
all  elementary  schools,  beginning,  preferably, 
with  the  first  grade;  such  teaching,  moreover, 
to  be  given  in  such  a  manner  "as  to  produce 
familiarity  with  Germany  and  with  the  Ger 
man  race  in  America"; 

2.  "A  dignified  place  in  the  curriculum  for 
German  history"; 

3.  "The  rewriting  of  American  history  so 
that  not  only  descendants  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race,  but  those  also  of  the  German  and  of  other 
races  who  have  contributed  to  the  civilisation 
of   the  United   States   may   come   into   their 
rights,  and  so  that  contemptuous  expressions, 
such  for  instance  as  those  applied  to  the  Hes 
sian    mercenaries,    may   be    eliminated    from 
school  text  books" ; 

4.  Instruction  in  the  geography  of  Germany. 
To  carry  out  this  programme  the  National 

German  American  Alliance  always  maintained 
standing  committees  on  German  language  and 
schools  and  on  historical  investigation.  These 
committees  of  the  national  organisation  in 
cluded  in  their  membership  professors  from 
the  leading  universities  of  the  country.  The 


58  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

state  alliances  and  the  city  branches  organised 
in  a  similar  manner,  usually  with  an  educator 
from  the  state  university  or  from  some  local 
school  in  charge. 

In  addition  to  this,  every  city  alliance  was 
ordered  to  get  into  touch  and  to  co-operate 
with  the  German- American  Teachers'  Alliance 
(deutsch-amerikanischer  Lehrerbund).  This 
organisation  was  national  in  its  scope,  had 
branches  in  all  the  larger  cities,  and  included 
most  of  the  teachers  of  the  German  language. 
Every  year  it  held  a  convention,  widely  known, 
both  here  and  in  Germany,  as  the  "German- 
American  Teachers'  Day"  (deutsch-amerikan 
ischer  Lehrertag),  attended  by  instructors 
from  all  parts  of  the  country.  The  1912  con 
vention  was  held  in  the  city  of  Berlin.  Spe 
cial  arrangements  and  inducements  were  of 
fered  by  the  Hamburg-Amerika  and  Nord- 
deutscher  Lloyd  steamship  companies;  the 
delegates  were  given  every  attention,  and  sent 
home  feeling  that  they  were  part  of  the  Greater 
Germany  which  would  some  day  dominate  the 
world,  not  only  in  thought  and  speech,  but  in 
politics.  They  had  become  valuable  agents  in 
the  dissemination  of  Germanism.  The  Pan- 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  59 

German  League  regarded  them  as  part  of  its 
world  embracing  plan. 

Local  branches  of  the  National  German- 
American  Alliance  were  now  ordered  to  sup 
port  the  Teachers'  Alliance  in  every  way — to 
aid  them  in  organising  new  branches,  in  secur 
ing  better  teaching  conditions,  in  boosting  the 
attendance  in  German  classes,  in  introducing 
instruction  in  the  German  language  and  in 
widening  its  scope  wherever  possible.  In  this 
respect  the  two  organisations  worked  conven 
iently  hand  in  hand. 

In  those  communities  where  the  introduction 
of  German  was  left  to  the  local  school  board, 
the  procedure  was  to  send  questionnaires  to  can 
didates  for  the  board,  ascertain  their  attitudes, 
and  then  to  actively  campaign  for  those  who 
gave  satisfactory  answers.  This  was  done  in 
Chicago  in  1916;  the  result  was  a  board  almost 
unanimously  in  favour  of  the  German  lan 
guage,  and  a  special  supervisor  of  German  in 
struction  was  engaged.  In  Detroit,  even  after 
the  break  in  diplomatic  relations,  the  city  alli 
ance  interrogated  candidates  and  prepared  to 
enter  the  local  campaign.  In  Indianapolis 
they  succeeded  in  electing  one  of  their  own  offi- 


60  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

cers,  the  first  vice-president  of  the  national  or 
ganisation,  to  the  school  board,  and  he  later 
became  its  president.  This  worthy  was  at  the 
same  time  the  paid  propagandist  and  organ 
iser  of  the  brewers  and  liquor  dealers  of  Amer 
ica.  His  activities  in  promoting  Kultur,  in 
furthering  the  free  and  unrestricted  consump 
tion  of  beer  and  whiskey  and  in  advancing  the 
education  of  the  youth  of  Indianapolis  seemed 
to  dovetail  together  very  conveniently.  In 
Milwaukee,  another  vice-president  of  the  na 
tional  alliance  was  made  assistant  superin 
tendent  of  schools.  His  attitude  was  expressed 
in  his  report  to  the  Wisconsin  Alliance : — 

The  Alliance  should  exert  its  utmost  in 
fluence  in  regard  to  educational  matters;  it 
is  the  duty  of  every  branch  to  work  for  the 
introduction  of  German  study  in  our  public 
schools. 

In  fact,  in  Milwaukee,  Germanism  had 
pretty  much  its  own  way  about  everything — 
the  teaching  of  German  was  a  regular  part  of 
all  school  work  beginning  with  the  first  grade ; 
no  child  was  excused  except  on  special  request 
from  his  parents.  In  Cincinnati,  according  to 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  61 

its  records,  the  local  alliance  had  the  situation 
well  in  hand : 

In  the  session  of  the  German-American 
City  Alliance  of  Cincinnati  the  matter  of 
German  instruction  came  up  for  thorough 
discussion.  It  was  asserted  that  in  many 
schools  only  one  hour  of  German  instruction 
is  given  a  day,  whereas  formerly  there  was  a 
full  half-day  of  instruction  in  German.  This 
condition  could  be  used  by  those  who  are 
not  in  favour  of  German  teaching  as  an  ar 
gument  for  abolishing  it  altogether,  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  too  expensive  to  keep  spe 
cial  instructors  just  for  one  hour  of  instruc 
tion  a  day. 

It  was  asserted  in  this  connection  that 
after  the  war  there  would  undoubtedly  come 
a  strong  movement  for  the  abolition  of  Ger 
man  instruction  throughout  the  land,  since 
the  Anglo-American  population  has  learned 
from  the  things  that  have  taken  place  in  this 
country  with  reference  to  the  European 
war,  that  the  preservation  of  the  mother 
tongue  on  the  part  of  the  immigrant  is  pre 
cisely  the  thing  which  is  the  strongest  fac 
tor  in  preserving  old  country  individuality 
and  opinions. 

It  was  said  that  for  that  very  reason  even 
now  we  should  be  devising  means  for  meet- 


62  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

ing  this  movement  against  German  instruc 
tion  when  the  time  comes.  More  especially 
should  every  German  see  to  it  that  in  his 
family  German  is  spoken  and  German  books 
and  newspapers  are  read. 

A  warning  was  given  against  making  any 
concession  whatever  to  the  enemies  of  Ger 
man  teaching,  since  in  that  event  it  would 
slowly,  though  certainly,  perish;  nor  could 
the  prohibition  movement  have  made  the 
progress  that  it  has,  had  not  the  liberal  ele 
ment  continually  made  concessions  to  it. 

The  Superintendent  of  Schools  was  highly 
praised  in  the  discussion  of  the  subject.  It 
was  said  that  he  was  a  thorough-going 
friend  of  German  teaching  and  that  he  fa 
voured  it  at  every  opportunity,  so  that  in 
Cincinnati  at  least  there  seemed  to  be  as  yet 
no  danger  to  it. 

This  probably  accounts  for  the  fact  that  a 
full  year  after  the  United  States  had  entered 
the  war  this  same  superintendent,  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Americanisation  committee  appointed 
by  the  governor  of  the  state,  found  himself  un 
prepared  to  vote  either  in  the  affirmative  or  in 
the  negative,  on  the  question  of  the  elimination 
of  German  instruction  from  the  public  schools. 

Even   greater   vigilance   was   exercised   in 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  63 

other  localities  where  officials  of  the  alliance 
regularly  inspected  the  German  classes.  One 
of  these  men,  shortly  before  the  United  States 
entered  the  war,  visited  the  schools  of  Omaha 
and  reported  that  he  was  more  than  pleased 
with  what  he  found — the  children  were  acquir 
ing  a  typical  Berlin  accent,  sang  a  number  of 
songs  to  his  entire  approval  and  finally  ended 
in  rendering  "Die  Wacht  am  Rhein"  with  an 
enthusiasm  and  vigour  which  would  have  done 
credit  to  the  children  of  the  Fatherland,  even 
a  number  of  negro  boys  joining  in  the  song 
with  all  their  might  and  main !  To  encourage 
pupils,  medals  were  provided  and  in  cities  hav 
ing  German  theatres  local  organisations  were 
called  upon  to  furnish  free  seats  for  students 
of  German. 

Where  state  legislation  was  necessary  to  fa 
cilitate  the  introduction  of  German,  the  alliance 
was  equally  active.  Questionnaires  on  the  pro 
posed  measures  were  sent  to  all  candidates. 
This  was  done  in  Ohio  in  the  election  of  1912. 
In  this  manner  the  state  alliance  of  Nebraska 
secured  the  passage  of  the  Mockett  Law,  re 
quiring  the  teaching  of  a  foreign  language,  be 
ginning  with  the  fourth  grade — the  foreign 


64  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

language  intended  being,  of  course,  German — 
whenever  the  parents  of  fifty  children  in  at 
tendance  upon  the  school  requested  it.  Imme 
diately  after  the  passage  of  the  law,  members 
of  the  alliance  in  Nebraska  City  circulated  pe 
titions  requesting  German  instruction.  The 
petitions  were  presented  to  the  school  authori 
ties,  but  they  hesitated  to  comply  for  the  reason 
that  it  was  found  that  less  than  one-third  of 
the  signers  of  the  petitions  intended  to  have 
their  children  take  advantage  of  the  instruc 
tion,  and  that,  as  a  consequence,  the  expense 
entailed  would  be  out  of  proportion  to  the  num 
ber  receiving  the  benefit.  The  members  there 
upon  obtained  a  writ  of  mandamus  compelling 
the  school  board  to  introduce  the  subject,  the 
case  was  carried  to  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the 
constitutionality  of  the  law  and  the  issuance  of 
the  writ  were  upheld. 

In  fact,  nowhere  did  the  educational  pro 
gramme  of  the  National  Alliance  make  such 
progress  as  in  Nebraska.  In  1910,  an  effort  had 
been  made  to  have  the  legislature  enact  a  law 
requiring  every  child  to  attend  the  public 
schools  at  least  three  months  in  the  year,  and 
placing  the  parochial  schools  to  some  extent 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  65 

under  the  supervision  of  county  school  super 
intendents.  Lutheran  and  German  Catholic 
clergymen  joined  with  the  state  alliance  in  op 
posing  what  was  regarded  as  an  attack  upon 
Germanism,  and  the  bill  was  killed  in  com 
mittee,  only  one  legislator  out  of  nine  having 
the  courage  to  stand  for  Americanism! 
Parochial  schools  continued  to  grow  until 
recently  it  was  found  that  in  nineteen  school 
districts  they  had  crowded  out  the  public 
schools  entirely. 

The  German  language  newspapers,  some  six 
hundred  in  number,  gave  the  propaganda  un 
divided  support.  Ever  since  the  early  go's 
their  steadily  dwindling  circle  of  German  read 
ers  warned  them  that  their  circulation  must  be 
replenished  from  the  rising  generation — and 
Herman  Ridder  was  frank  enough  to  confess 
that  his  interest  in  German  language  instruc 
tion  arose  out  of  his  interest  in  the  circulation 
of  the  Staats-Zeitung. 

Of  course  the  propaganda  never  revealed  its 
real  purpose  when  presented  to  state  legislators 
or  to  school  boards.  It  always  came  before 
them  in  plausible  pedagogical  disguises.  It 
was  said  that  the  study  of  German  improved 


66  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

the  student's  mastery  of  English.  As  an  Eng 
lish  essay  published  by  the  National  Alliance 
declared,  it  was 

a  most  valuable  aid  to  the  acquirement  of 
perfect  English.  .  ,  .  This  every  educator, 
who  deserves  the  name  of  such,  will  ac 
knowledge  as  a  correct  statement  of  the  prin 
ciples  of  teaching  and  the  experience  of  our 
Cincinnati  schools  has  justified  these  views. 
.  .  .  This  has  been  appreciated  by  parents 
who  are  not  of  foreign  descent  by  sending 
their  children  to  the  German  classes.  .  .  . 
Our  German  citizens,  and  particularly  of  the 
intellectual  classes,  will  not  send  their  chil 
dren  to  schools  from  which  a  study  is  elimi 
nated  that  promotes  the  knowledge  of  Eng 
lish,  because  good  and  pure  English  is  almost 
an  obsession  with  them. 

And  circulars  expounding  this  educational 
theory  were  circulated  by  the  thousand.  One 
of  these  curious  documents  appeared  over  the 
name  of  a  well-known  educator  of  American 
birth,  a  professor  in  the  University  of  Penn 
sylvania.  The  author  introduces  his  subject 
by  observing: 

In  the  recent  reports  of  the  Bureau  of 
Education  in  Washington,  treating  the  sub- 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  67 

ject  of  the  teaching  of  modern  languages 
in  American  schools,  colleges  and  universi 
ties,  there  is  ample  evidence  of  the  necessity 
of  directing  the  attention  of  our  school 
boards  and  college  administrations  to  the 
perilous  conditions  of  the  educational  meth 
od,  now  running  riot  in  American  educa 
tion.1 

He  postulates  that  "the  first  and  funda 
mental  discipline  of  all  education  is  the  mastery 
of  that  language  which  is  the  means  of  daily 
intercourse/'  but  deplores  that 

while  the  necessity  of  the  study  of  English 
is  theoretically  recognised,  English  is  one  of 
the  most  poorly  taught  subjects  in  our  Amer 
ican  schools  from  the  kindergarten  to  the 
university.  The  cause  of  this  is  that  in  spite 
of  our  educational  progress,  we  are  still  un 
der  the  ban  of  the  tradition  of  incompetent 
teaching  and  confused  notions  of  the  real 
purpose  of  public  education.  Any  trained 
scholar  must  blush  when  he  goes  into  the 
elementary  schools  and  observes  the  lack  of 
knowledge  and  method  displayed  in  the 
teaching  of  English.  The  writer  can  re- 

lrThe  author  is  responsible  for  the  italics  in  this  and  in 
the  following  excerpts. 


68  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

member  the  time  when  the  great  aim  in  the 
study  of  English  was  to  commit  to  memory 
the  thirty-two  rules  of  Smith's  English 
Grammar,  while  it  seemed  not  to  occur  even 
to  the  teacher  that  these  rules  were  intended 
to  be  put  into  practice  in  speaking  and  writ 
ing  the  language.  The  result  was  that  the 
pupils  left  the  English  class  with  the  same 
slipshod  habit  of  incorrect  speaking  with 
which  they  entered, 

and  his  conclusion  is  that  the  remedy  is  the 
study  of  German — a  remedy  which  one  might 
be  inclined  to  commend  to  the  author  himself 
in  view  of  his  samples  of  mixed  metaphor  and 
confused  syntax.  Another  pamphlet,  pub 
lished  in  English  under  the  name  of  the  super 
visor  of  German  in  the  public  schools  of  Cin 
cinnati,  contains  the  following : 

So,  then,  numerous  authorities — many  of 
them  Americans — testify  that  the  instruc 
tion  in  German  is  not  only  in  nowise  a  hin 
drance  to  the  progress  of  the  scholars,  but  in 
striking  wise  a  furtherance. 

And  after  speaking  of  the  success  attending 
instruction  in  German  in  Cincinnati,  the  author 
says: 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  69 

Such  successes  can  be  achieved,  of  course, 
only  on  condition  that  the  instruction  be  ade 
quate;  that  is  to  say,  that  the  instructors  be 
equal  to  their  task,  and  that  there  be  such 
a  thing  as  aimful  supervision.  And  even 
this  kind  of  instruction  is,  alas,  gauged  only 
too  often  by  ignorance  and  prejudice,  if  not 
the  sheer  lust  of  cavilling  and  undermining. 

Another    educator    from    the    Central    High 
School,  Philadelphia,  exclaims : 

I,  for  my  part,  acknowledge  that  I  should 
not  exactly  relish  being  charged  with  the 
task  of  manning  or  womaning  (venia  sit 
verbo)  all  our  many  public  schools  with 
thoroughly  competent  language-teachers.  I 
fear  I  could  not  do  it  even  with  the  help  of 
Diogenic  lanterns.  Am  I  wrong,  or  are  we 
placed  between  the  Scylla  of  maintaining  an 
undesirable  status  quo  and  the  Charybdis 
of  a  possibly  forthcoming  halfness? 

Happily,  America  is  about  through  with  the 
"forthcoming  halfness"  produced  in  elemen 
tary  schools  by  the  forcible  introduction  of  the 
German  language.  These  examples  should 
serve  as  warnings  of  the  huddled  deformities 
of  style  which  the  continued  study  of  German 


70         l  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

would  have  eventually  introduced  into  the  lan 
guage  of  the  country. 

The  leaders  of  the  German  movement  in 
America  have  always  contended  that  history 
text-books  used  in  the  public  schools  were  re 
plete  with  falsifications ;  that  they  showed  most 
astounding  omissions;  that  they  purposely 
slighted  heroes  of  German  descent  and  over 
looked  the  part  the  German  element  had  played 
in  the  development  of  the  country.  They  criti 
cised,  too,  the  omission  of  German  history  from 
the  school  curriculum.  "Only  with  a  back 
ground  of  German  political  history,  and  above 
all  of  the  history  of  German  Kultur,  can  a 
proper  understanding  of  American  history  be 
attained;  only  through  the  knowledge  of  the 
history  of  Germany  can  there  be  awakened  in 
the  German-American  youth  the  well  justified 
pride  in  their  descent,"  so  the  Alliance  declared 
at  one  of  its  conventions.  Year  by  year,  as  ra 
cial  consciousness  was  intensified,  they  took 
deeper  umbrage  at  these  supposed  affronts  to 
their  worth  and  insisted  that  the  entire  in 
struction  in  history  called  loudly  for  thorough 
going  reform. 

This    feeling   gave   rise   to   the   formation 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  71 

throughout  the  country  of  German  historical 
societies — a  definitely  related  phase  of  the  Ger 
man  movement.  The  "German-American  His 
torical  Society,'*  a  national  organisation,  was 
incorporated  in  1901,  and  began  to  affiliate 
with  itself  existing  societies.  Its  purpose 
was  the  investigation,  collection,  and  publica 
tion  of  material  relating  to  the  history  and 
culture  of  Germans  in  America,  and  to  provide 
that  due  recognition  be  given  to  their  efforts 
and  achievements.  The  National  Alliance  en 
couraged  the  work,  and  urged  its  members  to 
form  affiliated  historical  societies  in  every 
county  and  city.  "It  is  absolutely  necessary/' 
it  decided,  "to  have  a  history  of  the  United 
States  written  which  will  convincingly  show 
the  part  Germans  have  had  in  the  develop 
ment  of  the  country  as  compared  with  the  other 
elements  of  the  population  in  order  to  give  the 
American  people  a  proper  conception  of  the 
subject.  The  Alliance  should  undertake  to 
have  such  a  \vork  published,  and  should  see  to 
it  that  it  is  used  as  a  basis  for  the  teaching 
of  American  history  in  our  public  schools." 
Professor  Goebel,  in  his  book,  "Germanism  in 
North  America/'  published  by  the  Pan-German 


72  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

League,  urged  that  an  outline  treatise  of  Ger 
man-American  history  be  prepared,  and  its  in 
troduction  in  the  public  schools  undertaken. 

To  effect  the  desired  reforms  a  delegation 
from  the  Alliance  appeared  before  a  commit 
tee  of  the  American  Historical  Association  in 
1909 — it  was  felt  that  this  committee  had  an 
important  influence  on  the  text-books  used  and 
the  courses  of  instruction.  But  the  represen 
tations  of  the  Alliance  were  unavailing. 

Other  plans  for  meeting  the  situation  had 
therefore  to  be  devised.  Jn  those  districts 
where  Germans  were  in  the  majority,  the  text 
books  could  be  controlled  through  the  election 
of  the  members  of  the  school  board.  But  this 
would  not  accomplish  the  result  principally  de 
sired — the  enlightenment  of  Americans  in 
those  districts  where  the  Americans  were 
numerically  stronger. 

The  school  committee  therefore  hit  upon  an 
original  plan.  "To  reach  an  American  one 
must  get  at  his  pocket  book,"  the  chairman  re 
ported.  The  Alliance  could  best  accomplish 
its  purposes  by  allying  itself  with  some  ener 
getic  publishing  house  that  had  put  out  a  book 
most  nearly  approaching  the  German  point  of 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  73 

view.  The  alliance  could  endorse  such  a  book, 
and  through  its  numerous  branches  advertise 
it,  bring  it  to  the  attention  of  school  boards, 
and  secure  its  adoption.  Requests  for  the  in 
sertion  of  other  desirable  matter  could  then 
be  made  of  the  publishers  from  time  to  time. 
Such  a  course  was  actually  pursued  in  the  case 
of  Bourne  and  Benton's  "School  History  of 
the  United  States,"  induced,  no  doubt,  by  these 
gratifying  paragraphs: — 

They  (the  Germans)  came  in  such  num 
bers  that  they  almost  succeeded  in  making 
Wisconsin  a  German  state.  Some  parts  of 
the  West  became  a  New  Germany,  just  as 
Pennsylvania  had  been  in  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury.  To-day  a  large  majority  of  the  people 
of  Wisconsin  are  German  immigrants  or 
their  descendants. 

Some  Special  Debts  to  the  Germans. — 
The  Germans  were  better  taught  than  most 
of  the  native  Americans,  because  a  new  sys 
tem  of  schools  had  been  established  in  Ger 
many.  The  skilled  workingmen  and  the 
farmers  were  well  trained.  As  citizens  they 
helped  to  make  better  schools  in  the  United 
States.  Furthermore,  American  students 
began  to  go  to  Germany  for  higher  educa 
tion.  In  still  other  ways  they  deeply  influ- 


74  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

enced  American  life.  They  had  a  taste  and 
love  for  music  and  painting  and  sculpture 
that  few  Americans  had  at  that  time.  Wher 
ever  they  went  they  became  the  teachers  of 
these  arts.  In  a  multitude  of  ways — by  sing 
ing  societies,  gymnastic  organisations,  open- 
air  celebrations,  fairs  and  frolics  and  festi 
vals — they  added  to  the  wholesome  pleasures 
of  life. 


The  book  was  endorsed  by  a  number  of  state 
alliances  and  an  active  propaganda  was  un 
dertaken  in  its  behalf. 

At  the  same  time  a  covert  threat  was  exer 
cised  upon  all  publishers  of  text  books  through 
the  request  that  they  submit  copies  of  their 
publications.  They  were  made  to  appreciate 
the  financial  loss  they  would  incur  if  they 
ignored  Germanism  in  their  presentation  of 
history.  Professor  Samuel  B.  Harding,  of  the 
University  of  Indiana,  relates  an  interesting 
incident  in  this  connection.  Early  in  1915,  he 
prepared  a  chapter  on  the  present  war  for  use 
in  a  text  book.  He  read  it  before  the  histori 
cal  society  of  the  University.  Within  two 
weeks  there  were  forwarded  to  him  by  his  pub 
lishers  letters  which  they  had  received  demand- 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  75 

ing  that  the  chapter  be  omitted  from  the  book, 
and  practically  threatening  a  boycott,  not 
only  of  that  particular  book,  but  also  of  the 
firm  as  well.  A  letter  from  the  educational 
committee  of  one  of  the  state  alliances  threat 
ened  to  bring  the  matter  before  the  annual  con 
vention  of  the  National  German-American 
Alliance  at  its  session  in  August,  1915- 

The  most  insidious  of  all  forms  of  German 
propaganda  was  that  conducted  through  text 
books  used  in  the  public  schools  and  the  fact 
that  much  of  this  propaganda  was  produced 
unconsciously  and  innocently  by  American- 
born  scholars  is  convincing  evidence  of  our 
shortcomings  in  not  insisting  upon  education 
in  political  and  institutional  history.  A  na 
tive  American  teacher  in  a  Chicago  high  school 
produced  a  reading  book  for  beginners  in  Ger 
man.  In  it  he  contrasts  the  spirit  of  modern 
Germany  with  that  of  America  in  this  wise: 

In  our  country  where  every  youth  in  his 
first  year  in  school  learns  that  he  may  be 
president  some  day — where  parents  permit 
their  children  to  look  down  upon  their  modest 
callings,  where  the  higher  professions  are 
overcrowded,  manual  labour  despised,  the 


76  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

farms  deserted,  we  often  find  in  the  serving 
class  a  weak,  discontented  lot  of  people. 
In  sharp  contrast  to  them  were  the  people 
who  served  us  in  Germany.  They  knew 
what  they  had  to  do  and  did  it  without  feel 
ing  that  it  injured  their  dignity. 

The  author  then  goes  on  to  tell  of  the  punc 
tilious  attention  given  by  the  hotel  porter,  the 
chambermaid  and  baggage-hustler  at  the  sta 
tion — and  all  for  a  few  pfennigs !  The  service 
of  the  chambermaid  especially  appealed  to  him. 
One  could  throw  one's  soiled  linen  on  the  bed 
or  on  the  floor,  ring  the  bell,  and  she  would  at 
tend  to  it  all.  In  twenty-four  hours  it  would 
be  back,  and  no  distinction  would  be  made  be 
tween  Sundays  and  week  days !  How  the  au 
thor  longed  to  kidnap  one  of  these  neat  Ger 
man  girls  and  take  her  to  America !  At  night 
one  would  find  the  bed  curtains  drawn,  the 
covers  laid  down  and  the  nightgown  ready. 
But  as  conditions  in  his  own  country  flash  upon 
his  mind,  the  author's  conscience  smites  him: 

In  my  heart  I  thought  how  foolish  she 
would  be  if  she  came  to  America.  How 
much  she  would  lose!  And  what  would  be 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  77 

the  gain?     More  money — and  of  what  use 
would  that  be  to  her? 


"This  system  suits  me/'  exclaims  the  writer 
finally  in  ecstasy,  after  recounting  the  comforts 
of  life  in  Germany.  "And  the  prices!  Com 
pare  them  with  what  would  be  demanded  in 
New  York.  A  bum  wanted  a  dollar  for  carry 
ing  three  small  handbags  three  blocks  for  us 
to  the  station !" 

And  he  recounts  how  they  refused  his  prof 
fer,  and  when  a  little  nearer  to  the  station 
another  individual  offered  to  perform  the  serv 
ice  for  fifty  cents.  This  also  was  refused,  and 
then,  when  within  a  block  and  a  half  of  their 
destination,  another  man  offered  to  carry  the 
baggage  for  twenty-five  cents.  He  carried  it 
a  short  distance  and  then  turned  it  over  to  a 
boy  to  whom  he  gave  a  nickel  for  completing 
the  task,  keeping  twenty  cents  for  himself. 
And  this  incident  the  author  gives  as  typical 
of  America — a  country  where  those  who  per 
form  the  actual  labour  are  not  the  ones  to  re 
ceive  the  compensation. 

The  glorification  of  the  Kaiser  is  the  pur 
pose  of  another  reader  entitled  "Wilhelm  der 


78  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

Siegreiche,"    or    "William    the    Victorious." 
Note  this  specimen  of  adulation: 

Such  was  his  first  thought  when  the  trum 
pet  blast  of  victory  first  fell  upon  his  ears. 
Many  rulers  have  shown  themselves  to  be 
great  in  misfortune,  but  only  a  few  of  them, 
like  Emperer  Wilhelm,  great  while  lucky. 
True  to  his  convictions,  he  could  pray  to  the 
Highest  War  Lord,  who  leads  the  army  of 
stars,  because  He  had  manifested  Himself 
to  him  through  many  expressions  and  to 
kens.  And  as  a  Christian  and  a  hero  paying 
heed  to  these  tokens,  the  Emperor  had  ac 
quired  a  keen  ear  for  God's  words,  a  keen 
ear  for  hints  which  always  made  him  follow 
the  right  path. 

"Im  Vaterland" — a  book  which  the  author, 
a  publisher  of  text-books,  confesses  was  "made 
in  Germany" — provides  for  American  school 
children  a  song,  to  be  sung  to  the  tune  of  Amer 
ica,  which  runs  in  translation  as  follows : 

Hail  to  thee  in  victory, 
Leader  of  the  fatherland, 
Hail,  Kaiser,  to  thee ! 
Feel  in  your  brilliant  throne, 
The  highest  and  greatest  joy, 
Darling  of  the  people, 
Hail,  Kaiser,  to  thee! 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  79 

Not  horse  and  trooper, 
Make  secure  the  exalted  height, 
Where  our  prince  stands ! 
The  love  of  the  fatherland; 
The  love  of  the  freemen, 
Support  the  ruler's  throne, 
As  a  rock  in  the  sea. 

Glow,  holy  flame, 

Glow,  and  never  die, 

For  fatherland! 

We  all  stand  ready  now, 

Courageous  for  one  man, 

Gladly  we'll  fight  and  bleed, 

For  throne  and  empire! 

Be,  Kaiser,  long  here  with  your  people. 

Pride  of  humanity! 

Feel  on  your  throne 

The  greatest  and  highest  joy ! 

Darling  of  thy  people, 

Hail,  Kaiser,  to  thee! 

"Writing  and  Speaking  German" — a  text-  \ 
book  prepared  by  a  Cornell  professor,  and  os 
tensibly  merely  a  collection  of  exercises  for 
translation — devotes  an  entirely  disproportion 
ate  amount  of  space  to  the  Kaiser.  His  child 
hood,  his  student  days  in  the  gymnasium  of 
Cassel,  and  then  at  the  University  of  Bonn,  all 


80  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

are  idealised.  This  selection,  which  the  stu 
dent  is  expected  to  translate  into  German,  con 
cludes  : 

Although  the  German  Emperor  is  a  sol 
dier  through  and  through,  it  would  be  a  mis 
take  to  consider  him  a  monarch  anxious  for 
war.  On  the  contrary,  he  seeks  with  all  his 
might  to  preserve  the  German  people  from 
the  horror  of  war.  The  best  proof  of  his 
peaceful  disposition  is  the  fact  that  Ger 
many  has  had  no  war  for  forty  years. 

The  universities  are  treated  in  the  following 
manner : 

The  development  of  the  German  univer 
sities  during  the  nineteenth  century  since 
the  founding  of  the  University  of  Berlin  in 
October,  1810,  just  a  hundred  years  ago, 
presents  a  splendid  picture.  The  universi 
ties  have  had  an  inestimable  influence  on 
the  German  civilisation  and  even  upon  the 
political  history  and  the  economic  progress 
of  the  country.  Their  representation  is  in 
ternational  and  they  occupy  the  first  place 
among  the  scientific  institutions  of  the  world. 
Students  and  professors  from  all  countries 
go  to  Germany  to  attend  the  universities  and 
bring  the  methods  and  ideals  of  the  German 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  81 

university  back  with  them  to  their  own  lands. 
The  instruction  at  the  American  universities 
is  based  largely  on  German  investigation  and 
a  large  part  of  the  professors  at  many  of  our 
colleges  have  spent  at  least  one  semester  at 
a  German  university. 

Another  exercise  is  an  apology  for  German 
militarism: 

On  three  sides  Germany  has  open  bound 
aries  over  which  strong  armies  could  easily 
march,  if  it  were  not  ready  for  war  at  any 
time.  No  other  great  power  of  Europe  is  in 
such  a  dangerous  position.  A  strong  army 
is  a  necessity  and  now  a  powerful  fleet  seems 
to  be  just  as  necessary  if  Germany  is  to 
maintain  its  place  among  thv,  great  powers. 
Germany,  however,  desires  quiet  and  peace 
and  would  not  begin  a  war  without  reason. 
Indeed,  the  world  has  to  thank  Germany  that 
peace  has  reigned  so  long,  in  Europe.  .  .  . 

As  we  have  seen,  Germany  is  forced  by 
its  position  in  the  middle  of  the  powerful 
European  states  to  have  a  great  army.  .  .  . 

In  order  to  maintain  its  position,  Germany 
dare  not  give  up  this  army,  and  it  stands  now 
at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  as 
the  first  military  power  of  Europe,  and  as 
we  have  already  seen,  the  third  sea  power. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  cen- 


82  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

tury,  Germany  still  maintains  its  leading 
place  in  the  field  of  art  and  science.  Its 
laboratories  and  hospitals  serve  the  other  na 
tions  as  models,  its  universities  and  conserv 
atories  are  world- famed  and  are  attended  by 
students  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  But 
now  we  may  no  longer  think  of  Germany  as 
a  land  merely  of  thinkers  and  dreamers,  a 
land  of  poets,  composers  and  scholars.  Ger 
many  is  no  longer  one-sided.  It  has  now  be 
come  an  industrial  and  political  power  and 
we  may  confidently  expect  in  the  future 
progress  in  all  fields  of  human  activity. 

The  German  arguments  for  colonial  expan 
sion  are  put  forth  as  follows : — 

The  great  problem  of  Germany  in  the 
twentieth  century  is  the  founding  of  new 
colonies  and  the  development  of  its  trade 
with  its  new  colonies  and  with  foreign  lands. 
The  German  territory  has  now  become  too 
small  for  the  German  people.  The  sixty- 
eight  million  Germans  need  more  land  than 
they  now  possess  in  Europe.  Therefore  the 
present  colonial  policy  of  Germany  is  not 
merely  a  game;  it  is  a  necessity. 

And   finally   the   author   throws   a   sop  to 
American  sensibilities  by  proclaiming  that  "the 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  83 

German  Constitution  is  in  many  respects  simi 
lar  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

Why,  we  may  ask,  the  lugging  of  all  this  for 
eign  matter  into  a  text-book  on  German  com 
position?  It  has  no  appropriate  place  in  such 
a  work.  Can  it  be  said  that  in  view  of  the 
attitude  taken  by  the  National  German- Ameri 
can  Alliance  on  school  text-books,  and  in  def 
erence  to  their  plans  for  endorsing  and  se 
curing  the  adoption  of  such  books  as  met  with 
their  approval,  it  behooved  a  writer  to  insert 
such  material,  and  a  publisher  to  give  it  promi 
nence?  Of  one  thing,  however,  we  may  be  cer 
tain — after  a  student  has  laboured  over  these 
exercises,  translated  them  into  German  and 
discussed  them  in  class,  his  mind  is  so  thor 
oughly  saturated  with  ideas  favourable  to  Ger 
many  that  it  is  ready  to  react  to  the  crudest 
form  of  propaganda. 

The  propaganda  found  its  way  even  into  an 
English  speller.  It  is  seldom,  indeed,  that  space 
is  found  in  such  a  work  for  pieces  of  com 
position.  Nevertheless  the  books  used  in  the 
fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  seventh  and  eighth  grades 
of  the  Chicago  public  schools  gave  space  to 
two  prose  selections:  one  of  a  dozen  lines  de- 


84  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

scribing  the  aptness  of  the  natives  of  Central 
Australia  in  identifying  the  tracks  of  birds  and 
animals  and  another  which  reads  as  follows : — 

THE  KAISER  IN  THE  MAKING 

In  the  gymnasium  at  Cassel  the  German 
Kaiser  spent  three  years  of  his  boyhood,  a 
diligent  but  not  a  brilliant  pupil,  ranking 
tenth  among  seventeen  candidates  for  the 
university. 

Many  tales  are  told  of  this  period  of  his 
life,  and  one  of  them,  at  least,  is  illuminat- 


A  professor,  it  is  said,  wishing  to  curry 
favour  with  his  royal  pupil,  informed  him 
overnight  of  the  chapter  in  Greek  that  was 
to  be  made  the  subject  of  the  next  day's  les 
son. 

The  young  prince  did  what  many  boys 
would  not  have  done.  As  soon  as  the  class 
room  was  opened  on  the  following  morning, 
he  entered  and  wrote  conspicuously  on  the 
blackboard  the  information  that  had  been 
given  him. 

One  may  say  unhesitatingly  that  a  boy 
capable  of  such  an  action  has  the  root  of  a 
fine  character  in  him,  possesses  that  chival 
rous  sense  of  fair  play  which  is  the  nearest 
thing  to  religion  that  may  be  looked  for  at 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  85 

that  age,  hates  meanness  and  favouritism, 
and  will,  wherever  possible,  expose  them. 
There  is  in  him  a  fundamental  bent  toward 
what  is  clean,  manly  and  aboveboard. 

One  may  well  imagine  the  indignation  that 
would  have  been  aroused  by  any  similar  refer 
ence  to  King  George  or  to  Edward  VII !  But 
so  completely  had  we  been  hypnotised  by  the 
prestidigitations  of  Kultur  that  these  intru 
sions  in  our  school  books  were  not  even  no 
ticed  until  after  war  had  aroused  us  from  our 
trance ! 

But  Germanism  did  not  stop  with  the  grade 
schools  nor  with  the  high  schools.  It  included 
the  institutions  of  higher  learning.  Here,  too, 
its  objects  were  two-fold:  first,  to  retain  for 
Germanism  the  allegiance  of  those  of  German 
descent,  and,  second,  to  bring  the  rest  of  the 
population  into  submission  to  Kultur.  A 
pamphlet  published  and  circulated  in  1916  by 
the  German  University  League  of  New  York 
— a  league  including  in  its  membership  not  only 
native  Germans,  but  native  Americans,  hold 
ing  prominent  positions  in  American  universi 
ties — deplores  the  baneful  influence  of  Amen- 


86  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

can  institutions  upon  the  youth  of  German 
descent : 

They  went  to  Anglo-American  schools 
and  colleges,  and  they  succumbed;  not 
only  intellectually,  but — much  more  serious 
ly — racially.  It  is  a  very  sorry  sight  to-day 
to  find  that  many  unknown  thousands  of 
German  descendants,  and  particularly  those 
that  had  enjoyed  greater  privileges,  have 
been  estranged  from  the  German  cause;  yes, 
there  are  many  Germans  that  are  not  only 
indifferent  but  opposed  to  the  German  spirit 
of  to-day,  that  do  not  understand  and 
neither  feel  any  longer  the  inspiration  of  the 
German  idea  in  the  world.  They  have 
learned  to  think  Anglo-American. 

Thereupon  the  writer  exclaims : 

There  is  room  for  a  true  German  Uni 
versity! 

Hundreds  of  Americans  yearly  go  to 
German  universities,  and  thousands  more 
would  welcome  its  opportunities ;  so  the  sym 
pathy  of  Americans  would  be  assured  for 
such  an  undertaking,  but,  what  is  most  im 
portant,  with  it  an  organ  would  be  created 
that  would  give  the  German  element  an  even 
chance  to  develop,  to  develop  from  a  second- 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  87 

class  citizenship  to  a  first-class  one,  perhaps 
the  first-class  citizenship  of  this  great  coun 
try. 

But  not  enough,  a  university  will  never 
accomplish  that  alone;  what  is  needed  as 
much,  if  not  first,  is  an  educational  system 
from  bottom  up — German  schools,  genuine 
German  gymnasien — not  compromises,  but 
all  of  them  genuinely  German,  with  German 
as  the  principal  language  all  the  way 
through.  A  university  cannot  be  what  it 
ought  to  be  unless  it  is  fed  by  correspond 
ing  preparatory  schools;  and  you  cannot 
turn  out  German  scientists  without  German 
gymnasien  and  kindred  schools. 

Professor  Julius  Goebel  is  more  modest  in 
his  suggestions: 

More  than  ever  before  our  race,  which 
has  finally  come  to  a  self-conscious  life,  re 
quires  a  central  point,  a  common  hearth  of 
German  Kultur  from  which  light  and 
warmth  would  radiate.  For  the  accomplish 
ment  of  this  high  aim,  I  see  in  my  mind  an 
institute  for  German  Kultur,  fashioned 
somewhat  after  the  model  of  the  Berlin 
Academy  of  Sciences.  This  could  be  the 
meeting  place  for  prominent  German-Amer 
ican  and  Imperial  German  scholars,  on  which 


88  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

the  exchange  of  the  cultural  possessions  of 
both  peoples  could  take  place  in  a  fructify 
ing  manner.  Here  there  should  be  culti 
vated  in  addition  to  German-American  his 
tory,  the  past  cultural  relations  between 
Germany  and  America — German  language 
and  literature,  German  history,  German  eth 
nology,  German  history  of  art  and  German 
philosophy.  From  this  place  the  results  of 
the  investigation  would  be  spread  by  letter 
and  by  word  of  mouth  to  the  most  distant 
circles  of  the  nation.  Por,  although  it  would 
be  the  principal  task  of  such  an  academy  to 
bring  on  behalf  of  Kultur  new  life  to  our 
German- American  race,  still  it  would  have 
to  impart  no  less  vigorously  German  Kultur 
to  the  Anglo-American  portion  of  the  popu 
lation.  In  this  manner  only  could  the  sound 
thought  at  the  basis  of  the  exchange  profes 
sorships  be  made  fruitful  and  be  made  to 
materialise. 

The  project  for  a  university  modelled  along 
the  lines  of  those  in  Germany,  in  which  the 
German  language,  literature  and  culture 
would  be  given  prominence,  was  brought  for 
ward  at  several  conventions  of  the  National 
German-American  Alliance.  While  favour 
ably  discussed,  the  time  did  not  seem  ripe  for 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  89 

the  undertaking,  and  the  Alliance  therefore  de 
voted  itself  to  influencing  existing  institutions. 
The  first  step,  of  course,  was  to  secure  greater 
recognition  for  the  German  language.  As  an 
entrance  requirement  it  should  be  placed  on 
the  same  footing  as  Latin.  This  reform  was 
actually  brought  about  in  1913  in  the  Univer 
sity  of  Nebraska.  Latin  came  to  be  required 
only  of  medical  students.  'The  teaching  of 
German/'  so  the  school  committee  of  the  Na 
tional  German- American  Alliance  reported,  "is 
therefore  making  great  headway  in  the  high 
schools  of  the  state  at  the  expense  of  Latin." 
In  1913,  at  its  St.  Louis  convention,  the 
National  German-American  Alliance  organised 
a  committee  for  the  "establishment  of  rela 
tions  with  American  universities  for  the  pro 
motion  of  German  Kultur"  and  appointed  on 
the  committee  members  of  the  faculties  of 
Wisconsin,  Illinois  and  Michigan.  Question 
naires  were  sent  to  five  hundred  and  forty-six 
colleges  and  universities  in  the  United  States 
for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  number  of 
students  taking  courses  in  German,  the  num 
ber  of  these  that  were  of  German  descent,  and 
what  contributions  to  German-American  his- 


90  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

tory  had  been  made  by  instructors  or  students 
in  the  German  departments. 

But  the  most  ambitious  part  of  the  commit 
tee's  programme  was  a  huge  Bismarck  celebra 
tion,  staged  at  the  leading  state  university  of 
the  Middle  West.  Curiously  enough,  this 
strangely  exotic  affair  was  planned  for  the 
year  1914 — the  Bismarck  centennial  did  not 
occur  until  1915.  However,  the  university  out 
did  itself  in  honour  of  the  German  statesman. 
Never  had  the  campus  witnessed  so  imposing 
a  demonstration  in  honour  of  any  hero,  for 
eign  or  domestic.  The  great  university  audi 
torium  was  loaned  for  the  occasion — a  thing 
that  had  never  been  done  before — members  of 
the  faculty  turned  out  en  masse,  the  state 
schoolmasters,  then  in  session,  adjourned  for 
the  event.  German  societies  from  all  the  cities 
of  the  state  attended,  music  was  furnished  by 
the  university  glee  club,  by  members  of  the  con 
servatory  and  by  the  assembled  maennerchors, 
a  member  of  the  National  German-American 
Alliance  acted  as  chairman,  and  the  guest  of 
the  occasion,  the  cynosure  of  all  eyes,  was  the 
Imperial  German  Consul-General  from  Chi- 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  91 

cago,  who  delivered  an  address  on  "Germany's 
Economic  Development  since  1871." 

Before  the  end  of  the  year  the  offices  and 
staff  of  the  consulate  general  in  Chicago  were 
being  used  to  hire  thugs  and  purchase  dyna 
mite  to  destroy  by  wholesale  lives  and  prop 
erty  in  the  state  which  supported  that  univer 
sity. 

And  when  the  hirelings  of  the  Chicago  con 
sulate  general  were  finally  caught,  and  the 
facts  disclosed  in  the  course  of  a  long  trial  in 
the  district  court,  many  who  had  joined  in 
doing  honour  to  Germany's  representative  be 
thought  themselves  of  the  strangely  ironical 
fate  that  had  decreed  that  the  famous  Bis 
marck  celebration  of  1914  should  fall  on  All 
Fools'  Day! 

This  incident  does  not  apply  solely  to  the 
one  university  involved;  on  the  contrary,  it  is 
characteristic  of  the  ascendancy  which  Kultur 
had  acquired  in  all  our  institutions  of  learning 
and  throughout  our  entire  educational  system. 


92  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 


IV 


GERMAN    PROPAGANDA   THROUGH 
AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES 

IMMEDIATELY  upon  the  outbreak  of  the 
world  war  the  forces  of  Kultur  in  America  be 
gan  their  mobilisation.  In  the  bewilderment 
of  those  first  August  days  before  war  had  even 
been  declared  between  Great  Britain  and  Ger 
many, — while  Americans  were  anxiously  in 
quiring  the  meaning  of  it  all,  the  issues  in 
volved,  who  and  what  was  responsible  for  the 
world  catastrophe — was  it  Serbia,  or  Russia,  or 
the  Czar  or  could  it  be  the  Kaiser  or  the  junker 
party  in  Germany,  or  was  it  British  commercial 
jealousies — the  National  German-American 
Alliance  came  forth  as  the  one  body  fortified 
for  the  emergency  and  fully  decided  as  to  the 
course  it  should  pursue.  The  president  of  the 
Alliance  at  once  sent  an  appeal  to  "all  those 
who  had  studied  in  German  universities"  to  in 
augurate  a  propaganda  "on  behalf  of  the  Ger- 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  93 

man  cause."  He  closed  the  appeal  with  the  sig 
nificant  words : 

I  have  learned  from  a  responsible  source 
that  in  the  event  that  England  is  defeated  an 
attempt  will  be  made  to  draw  the  United 
States  into  an  alliance  with  England.  There 
fore,  it  is  important  at  the  very  outset  to 
show  what  a  colossal  power  the  citizens  of 
German  descent  are  able  to  wield. 

A  flood  of  light  would  certainly  be  shed  upon 
the  subsequent  propaganda  in  the  United 
States  if  the  "responsible  source"  indicated  by 
the  head  of  the  Alliance  were  disclosed. 

The  time  had  come  to  use  the  educational 
prestige  which  Germany  had  been  cultivating 
for  so  many  years.  In  September  "the  Univer 
sities  of  the  German  Empire"  sent  their  ap 
peal  to  the  "Universities  of  Foreign  Lands" 
in  protest  against  the  reports  of  German  bar 
barities.  Then  came  the  "Appeal  to  the  Civi 
lised  World"  signed  by  the  professors  of  Ger 
many,  with  the  reiterated  "it  is  not  true." 

"It  is  not  true,"  the  appeal  read,  "that  Ger 
many  brought  on  the  war.  ...  It  is  not  true 
that  we  ruthlessly  violated  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium.  ...  It  is  not  true  that  either  the  life 


94  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

or  the  property  of  a  single  Belgian  civilian  has 
been  touched  by  our  soldiers  except  out  of  most 
bitter  necessity.  ...  It  is  not  true  that  our 
troops  were  guilty  of  brutalities  in  Louvain. 
...  It  is  not  true  that  our  warfare  is  violating 
the  rules  of  international  law.  ...  It  is  not 
true  that  the  war  against  so-called  militarism 
is  not  a  war  against  our  Kultur,  as  our  enemies 
hypocritically  assert.  .  .  .  Believe  us!  Be 
lieve  that  we  will  fight  this  war  to  its  conclu 
sion  as  a  civilised  people,  a  people  to  whom  the 
heritage  of  a  Goethe,  of  a  Beethoven,  and  of 
a  Kant  is  just  as  sacred  as  its  hearth  and  lin 
tel!" 

The  Jena  professors,  Haeckel  and  Eucken, 
sent  an  open  letter  to  their  colleagues  and  ad 
mirers  denouncing  Great  Britain  for  fighting 
on  the  side  of  Russia,  declaring  that  Russia 
was  responsible  for  beginning  the  war  in  that 
she  refused  prompt  and  adequate  punishment 
for  a  miserable  assassination,  imputing  to 
Great  Britain  envy  as  her  motive  and  ridiculing 
as  a  hypocritical  pharisaism  the  British  claim 
that  the  violation  of  Belgian  neutrality  had 
brought  them  into  the  war. 

Finally,  the  gymnasium  instructors  issued 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  95 

their  manifesto:  "It  fills  us  with  indignation 
that  the  enemies  of  Germany,  with  England  at 
their  head,  ostensibly  in  our  favour,  make  a 
distinction  between  the  spirit  of  German 
science  and  the  spirit  of  what  they  call  Prus 
sian  militarism.  In  the  German  army  there  is 
no  different  spirit  from  that  which  prevails  in 
the  German  people,  for  both  are  the  same,  and 
we  also  belong  thereto.  .  .  .  Our  belief  is  that 
the  entire  culture  of  Europe  depends  for  its 
welfare  on  the  victory  which  German  militar 
ism  will  win  through  the  valour  and  faithful 
ness  of  our  men  and  through  the  sacrifice  of 
the  free  and  united  German  people."  The  only 
trouble  with  all  these  declarations  was  that 
they  proved  too  much — the  identification  of 
German  science  and  Kultur  with  Prussian  mili 
tarism  has  proved  to  be  only  too  accurate — 
German  education,  German  science  and  Kultur 
were  long  since  made  part  of  the  military  ma 
chine,  and  submission  to  one  meant,  ultimately, 
complete  and  hopeless  submission  to  the  other. 
However,  ubiquitous  German  agents  in  the 
United  States  quickly  herded  German  sym 
pathisers  and  the  dupes  of  Kultur  into  organ 
isations  with  high  sounding  names. 


96  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

It  has  been  found  that  whenever  a  move 
ment  offered  possibilities  of  usefulness  to  Ger 
many,  a  German  agent  has  been  on  hand  to 
offer  gratuitous  service,  advice,  guidance,  and 
even  financial  assistance.  This  was  true  of  the 
organisation  known  as  "Labour's  National 
Peace  Council"  and  its  connection  with  the  no 
torious  international  crook  and  spy  von  Rin- 
telen;  of  the  "Friends  of  Peace"  and  their  or 
ganiser,  Albert  Sander,  who  turned  out  to  be 
a  German  spy;  of  the  San  Francisco  organisa 
tion  known  as  the  "Friends  of  Peace  and  Neu 
trality"  and  their  secretary  who  happened  to 
be  in  the  pay  of  the  German  government;  of 
the  "American  Embargo  Conference";  of  the 
"Women's  League  for  Strict  Neutrality" — 
and  many  others.  And  this  was  true  of  the 
organisation  of  university  men  now  formed. 

In  November  there  was  held  in  New  York  a 
gathering  of  old  German  students  for  the  pur 
pose  of  devising  ways  and  means  of  assisting 
their  colleagues  in  the  war.  It  was  the  general 
opinion  that  something  more  must  be  done  than 
merely  to  raise  funds  for  the  relief  of  suffer 
ing — the  righteousness  of  Germany's  cause 
must  be  presented  to  the  American  people. 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  97 

So  there  came  to  be  formed  the  German 
University  League  with  professors  from  Co 
lumbia,  Chicago,  Princeton,  Vanderbilt,  Brown 
and  many  other  institutions  on  its  board  of 
trustees  and  in  its  list  of  sponsors.  The  aca 
demic  world  of  America  was  to  be  the  field  of 
its  propaganda.  In  Germany  it  related  itself 
to  "The  League  of  German  Scholars  and  Ar 
tists" — in  America  it  affiliated  itself  with  the 
Inter-Collegiate  League  of  German  Clubs.  No 
sooner  was  the  organisation  perfected  than  a 
German  agent  was  on  hand  offering  his  serv 
ices  as  secretary  free  of  all  expense — and  the 
man  continued  as  the  executive  head  of  the 
League  until  his  arrest  and  internment  in  De 
cember,  1917. 

Through  pamphlets,  lectures  and  corre 
spondence,  the  League  aimed  to  enlist  the  sym 
pathies  of  university  and  college  instructors. 
But  it  went  further  than  this.  Like  other  pro- 
German  organisations,  it  sought  to  create  the 
impression  that  it  represented,  more  truly  than 
the  administration,  the  American  people,  and 
thus  to  turn  the  sharp  edge  of  our  diplomacy. 
When  on  April  18,  1916,  this  government  had 
denounced  in  the  most  vigorous  and  uncompro- 


98  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

mising  terms  of  which  the  English  language  is 
capable,  the  torpedoing  of  the  Sussex  and  Ger 
many's  entire  submarine  warfare,  the  League 
took  upon  itself  to  neutralise  the  effect  of  the 
note  by  sending  a  wireless  message  to  Rec 
tor  Dr.  Ulrich  von  Wilamowitz  Moellendorf, 
of  Friedrich  Wilhelm  University,  Berlin.  This 
is  what  these  self-constituted  spokesmen  for 
the  American  people  said :  • 

We,  citizens  of  the  United  States,  Trus 
tees  of  the  German  University  League  of 
America,  wish  to  express  to  your  magnifi 
cence  our  strong  desire  to  see  peace  pre 
served  between  the  United  States  and  Ger 
many.  Knowing  both  countries  well,  we 
fear  that  Germany  may  interpret  the  mes 
sage  of  our  President  as  a  provocation,  some 
thing  surely  not  intended.  On  the  contrary, 
we  are  convinced  that  the  majority  of  the 
American  people  wish  to  have  the  relations 
of  amity  maintained,  which  have  always  ex 
isted  between  your  country  and  our  country. 
To  help  in  avoiding  the  calamity  of  a  mis 
interpretation  we  ask  you  to  bring  this  view 
to  the  attention  of  the  German  people. 

In  this  way  it  contributed  its  part  to  the  im 
pression  that  prevailed  in  German  official  cir- 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  99 

cles  that  the  United  States  would  not  dare  to 
take  a  firm  stand  for  fear  of  an  insurrection 
of  its  German  and  pro-German  elements. 

Early  in  the  war  the  Germanistic  societies 
were  summoned  to  do  their  share.  The  so 
ciety  of  Chicago  issued  several  pamphlets  fa 
vouring  the  German  cause,  and  its  work  was 
duly  acknowledged  in  the  Fatherland.  The 
New  York  society,  however,  failed  to  respond, 
and  the  pro-German  members  were  urged  to 
oust  the  delinquent  officers  and  turn  the  or 
ganisation  to  some  account.  American  ex 
change  professors  were  called  upon  to  uphold 
Germany's  cause,  and  several  of  them  toured 
the  country  in  that  behalf,  speaking  under  the 
auspices  of  historical  societies,  neutrality 
leagues  and  branches  of  the  National  German- 
American  Alliance.  Kuno  Meyer,  Professor 
of  Celtic  Philology,  at  one  time  suggested  as 
an  exchange  professor  at  Harvard,  laboured 
for  the  German  cause  among  those  of  Irish 
descent;  Moritz  J.  Bonn,  who  had  held  the 
Jacob  H.  Schiff  professorship  at  Cornell  and 
the  Carl  Schurz  Memorial  professorship  at 
Wisconsin,  and  Eugene  Kuehnemann,  who  had 


100          THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

held  the  same  professorships,  devoted  them 
selves  unremittingly  to  propaganda  work. 

Professors  of  German  birth  in  American 
universities  made  no  secret  of  their  partisan 
ship  and  many  used  their  class  rooms  for  prop 
aganda  purposes.  They  even  carried  their  par 
tisanship  into  their  social  relations.  A  former 
student  visiting  his  Alma  Mater  called  upon 
one  of  these  gentlemen  under  whom  he  had 
studied  in  his  college  days.  He  was  met  by 
his  former  instructor  with  the  typically  Prus 
sian  rebuff  that  "he  was  not  in  the  practice  of 
receiving  people  whose  sympathies  were 
against  Germany."  These  professors  were  in 
certain  cases  used  also  by  the  German  govern 
ment  to  report  the  attitude  of  their  colleagues. 
A  professor  at  an  eastern  university  happened 
to  write  to  a  former  colleague  in  Germany  ex 
pressing  his  disapproval  of  German  policies 
and  of  Germany's  conduct  of  the  war.  Several 
months  later  his  letter,  having  passed  through 
the  Berlin  foreign  office  and  through  the  Ger 
man  embassy  in  Washington,  was  presented 
to  the  President  of  the  University  by  a  mem 
ber  of  the  German  department  and  the  demand 
was  made  that  the  offending  colleague  be  dis- 


IN  AMERICA^  EDTOATIO]^:-         10,1 

ciplined.  With  shame  be  it  recorded  that  the 
president  of  the  University  summoned  the  pro 
fessor  in  question  and  warned  him  against  giv 
ing  expression  to  "unneutral"  sentiments. 

But  the  common  sense  of  our  people  proved 
more  trustworthy  in  its  judgment  than  the 
brains  of  our  intellectuals.  The  rape  of  Bel 
gium  and  the  crime  of  the  Lusitania  could  not 
be  excused  or  condoned  by  any  sophistry.  As 
time  went  on  public  sentiment  swung  more  and 
more  strongly  to  the  side  of  the  Allies.  Any 
hope  of  a  benevolent  neutrality  on  the  part  of 
America  vanished.  "Is  it  for  this,"  the  Kaiser 
is  reported' to  have  exclaimed,  "that  I  permit 
ted  myself  to  be  bored  by  the  lectures  of  those 
tiresome  American  professors !" 

The  disappointment  in  academic  circles  was 
keen.  "Right  here,"  declared  Eduard  Meyer, 
"we  thought  we  had  won  firm  ground,  both  by 
the  efforts  of  the  Kaiser  and  of  German  diplo 
mats,  and  by  the  ever  increasing  and  more  in 
timate  personal  relationships  which  were  per 
mitted  by  our  government  in  every  possible 
means  through  the  exchange  of  professors, 
through  the  visits  of  numerous  German 
scholars,  orators  and  artists,  through  the 


.02          THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 


friendly  reception  accorded  to  the  thousands 
of  Americans  who  visited  Germany  every  year, 
as  students  in  the  universities  and  schools  of 
music,  as  merchants  and  tourists.  It  seemed 
that  the  ground  was  prepared  for  such  a  rap 
prochement  through  the  opposition  between 
England  and  America  dating  from  the  days  of 
the  Revolutionary  War."  And  his  conclusion 
is  that:  "We  can  compel  the  Americans  to 
respect  us  through  our  successes,  but  more  we 
cannot  do  and  we  must  not  try  to  do  it,  if  we 
respect  ourselves  and  if  we  do  not  wish  to 
injure  again  our  prestige  in  the  world,  as  we 
did  in  the  last  decade  through  our  efforts  for 
the  favour  of  America  and  of  other  foreign 
nations  in  altogether  too  great  a  measure.  For 
this  reason  also  the  exchange  professorships 
which  were  introduced  by  the  government 
against  the  desire  of  the  universities  over  a 
decade  ago  at  Harvard  and  at  Columbia  should 
be  discontinued,  since  these  universities  have 
made  their  unfriendly  attitude  so  plain;  and  if 
ever  again  the  attempt  is  made  to  introduce 
these  exchange  professorships,  we  hope  that 
no  German  scholar  will  lower  himself  to  the 


' 

IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  103 

extent  of  accepting  an  invitation  to  lecture  at 
one  of  these  institutions/' 

Herman  Oncken,  some  time  professor  at  the 
University  of  Chicago,  was  equally  emphatic 
in  expressing  his  chagrin.  But  he  warned  his 
academic  colleagues  that  America  would  yet 
experience  how  Germany,  changed  from  her 
winning  ways,  would  emerge  from  the  war  "a 
proud  and  a  hard  nation." 

Eugene  Kuehnemann,  after  travelling 
seventy  thousand  miles,  visiting  one  hundred 
and  thirty-seven  cities,  and  giving  one  hundred 
and  twenty-one  addresses  in  English  and  two 
hundred  and  seventy-five  in  German,  returned 
with  Bernstorff  to  Germany.  He  confessed 
that  even  in  America  the  majority  were  in 
capable  of  enlightenment — the  only  hope  for 
the  country  lay  in  its  population  of  German 
origin. 


104          THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  AMERICAN 
EDUCATION 

FOR  the  present,  America  has  shaken  off  the 
toils  of  the  German  conspiracy.  In  the  light 
of  our  awakening,  text  books  have  been  ex 
amined  and  condemned:  Chicago  tore  from 
her  speller  the  offending  allusion  to  the  Kaiser 
whose  perjured  adulation  so  long  disgraced 
her  school  rooms.  New  York  placed  most  of 
the  text  books  of  German  instruction  upon  the 
index.  From  the  universities  there  has  been 
a  steady  exodus  of  those  whose  efforts  were 
in  the  interest  of  the  German  cause  rather  than 
in  the  interest  of  education. 

But  let  us  not  delude  ourselves  into  thinking 
that  German  propaganda  has  been  extirpated. 
Before  the  hot  blast  of  public  indignation  it 
went  under  cover,  merely  to  await  its  oppor 
tunity.  That  opportunity  has  now  come. 

With  the  signing  of  the  Armistice  the  strain 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  105 

of  war  has  been  relaxed,  and  public -opinion, 
until  recently  concentrated  upon  attaining  an 
overwhelming  victory,  is  again  disintegrating. 
The  nation  followed  unquestioningly  the  lead 
ership  of  the  President  in  the  prosecution  of 
the  war  against  Germany — now  that  hostili 
ties  have  been  suspended,  the  terms  of  peace 
are  slipping  into  the  arena  of  public  debate 
and  into  the  field  of  practical  politics.  The 
pro-German  agitator,  the  German  agent,  the 
spy,  the  radical  socialist,  the  Bolshevist  and 
others  who  use  camouflaged  theories  only  to 
mask  their  true  purposes,  are  again  lifting 
their  heads.  Again  politicians  are  cautiously 
placating  the  "German  vote"  for  private  gain. 
Unless  the  nation  maintains  its  vigilance  and 
is  as  single-minded  in  its  peace  aims  as  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  war,  the  sacrifices  of  the 
last  four  years  may  prove  to  be  merely  the  in 
troduction  to  an  even  greater  tragedy  in  the 
future. 

Every  college  campus  in  the  country  has 
been  turned  into  a  drill  field.  But  the  citizen 
soldier  must  be  trained  in  mind  and  morale 
as  well  as  in  physique,  and  our  education  must 
take  account  of  this,  its  largest  responsibility. 


106  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

We  must  insist  that  every  boy  and  every  girl 
be  brought  up  with  a  knowledge  of  the  origins 
and  nature  of  our  society.  This  has  been  our 
obvious  failure  in  the  past.  Over  the  princi-' 
pal  gateway  of  the  nation's  capital  are  in 
scribed  the  words :  "He  that  would  bring  home 
the  wealth  of  the  Indies  must  carry  the  wealth 
of  the  Indies  with  him;  so  it  is  with  travelling. 
A  man  must  carry  knowledge  with  him  if  he 
would  bring  home  knowledge."  Had  the  thou 
sands  of  young  men  who  during  the  past  forty 
years  have  entered  German  universities  heeded 
this  counsel,  they  would  have  realised  that  the 
threat  against  democracy  did  not  begin  on 
April  2,  1917,  that  it  did  not  begin  with  the 
assassination  of  the  Lusitania,  nor  with  the 
rape  of  Belgium;  they  would  have  divined  the 
truth  from  all  that  they  saw  in  Germany  that 
the  threat  of  autocracy  began  with  the  suppres 
sion  of  the  liberal  movement  in  1848,  and  that 
from  that  date  the  threat  became  more  men 
acing  year  by  year.  Instead,  they  fell  into  the 
goose-step  of  Kultur,  without  realising  whither 
the  march  was  directed.  They  brought  back 
valuable  knowledge  of  the  methods  of  minute 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  107 

research  but  their  capacity  for  broader  vision 
\yas  hopelessly  atrophied. 

Instruction  in  the  German  language  may  be  / 
'  appropriate  for  the  technician  and  the  scientist, 
but  it  should  never  again  be  permitted  in  the 
elementary  or  high  schools.  We  may  well  take 
a  leaf  from  the  science  of  philology  as  de-  - 
veloped  in  Germany;  a  nation's  life,  so  German  ( 
scientists  have  taught,  is  embodied  in  its  speech. 
Applying  this  conclusion  we  find  that  the  ideas 
which  are  fundamental  in  our  institutions  can 
not  be  translated  into  modern  German.  Let 
any  one  who  doubts  this  statement  attempt  to 
render  into  the  Kaiser's  language  the  second 
paragraph  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence; 
he  will  find  no  equivalents  for  such  expressions 
as  "liberty,"  "pursuit  of  happiness,"  "the  con 
sent  of  the  governed."  Nor  can  he  find  in  the 
German  language  a  means  for  adequately  ex 
pressing  the  concluding  sentence  in  which  the 
authors  pledge  to  each  other  "their  lives,  their 
fortunes  and  their  sacred  honour."  When 
Professor  Gneist  wrote  his  work  on  "Self-Gov 
ernment"  he  searched  for  a  German  equivalent 
for  that  concept.  He  could  find  none,  and 
finally  in  despair  entitled  his  monumental 


108          THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

treatise  with  the  English  expression,  and 
wherever  the  idea  comes  up  in  the  discussion, 
the  English  words  are  used  without  any  at 
tempt  at  translation.  And  to-day,  when  em 
perors,  kings  and  princes  are  fleeing  before  the 
wrath  of  their  subjects,  the  Marseillaise  is 
being  sung  in  Berlin  and  in  Vienna !  The  ideas 
of  individual  liberty  developed  through  the  his 
tory  of  England,  France  and  America  have  so 
long  encountered  a  blank  spot  in  the  German 
brain  that  there  is  in  the  language  no  medium 
for  their  expression.  No  man  of  German  de 
scent  can  become  thoroughly  American  while 
retaining  allegiance  to  the  German  language; 
no  man  of  any  race  can  become  an  American 
at  heart  until  he  seeks  to  make  the  English 
language  not  merely  the  language  of  his  busi 
ness,  but  also  of  his  fireside. 

All  this  is  said  with  a  due  appreciation  for 
the  treasures  of  German  literature.  But  the 
associations  of  the  German  language  with  the 
atrocities  of  the  war  are  such  that  the  world 
can  never  again  enjoy  the  German  classics  until 
the  memories  of  the  present  generation  shall 
have  been  effaced.  And  this  is  not  the  least 
of  the  tragedies  for  which  the  instigators  of 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  109 

the  war  must  answer !  When  finally  we  have 
placed  the  German  language  on  the  road  to  ex 
tinction  as  a  political  and  commercial  medium, 
then  we  will  return  and  bring  our  tribute  to 
Schiller,  Goethe  and  Lessing,  well  knowing 
that  those  great  spirits,  if  present  with  us  to 
day,  would  require  that  we  do  that  very  thing. 
And  here  we  come  upon  the  question  of  the 
foreign  language  press.  Even  with  the  best  of 
intentions  on  the  part  of  editors  of  individual 
newspapers,  still  the  interests  of  this  press  as 
a  whole  are  opposed  to  the  progress  of  Ameri- 
canisation.  It  is  urged  that  foreign  language 
publications  perform  a  valuable  function  in 
mediating  between  the  immigrant  and  his  new 
environment  and  in  preparing  him  for  citizen 
ship.  Let  this  be  granted.  But  if  the  immi 
grant  makes  any  progress  whatever  in  Ameri- 
canisation,  if  he  acquires  a  knowledge  of  the 
English  language,  then  he  prefers  the  broader 
outlook  afforded  by  the  American  press.  The 
foreign  language  newspaper  loses  his  patron 
age.  For  this  very  reason  the  foreign  lan 
guage  press  is  constantly  insisting  that  the  im 
migrant  retain  his  native  language.  It  has 
opposed  every  measure  which  would  require  a 


110  THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

knowledge  of  English  as  a  requisite  for  nat 
uralisation  or  for  the  exercise  of  the  franchise. 
In  this  respect  the  German  language  news 
papers  have  been  the  most  rabid  offenders. 

The  position  of  the  foreign  language  news 
papers  is  precarious  at  best.  It  is  only  by  the 
utmost  exertions  that  they  can  maintain  their 
circulations.  They  are  constantly  faced  with 
financial  difficulties.  This  condition  renders 
them  particularly  susceptible  to  temptation  and 
they  fall  an  easy  prey  to  politicians,  propagan 
dists  or  other  interests  that  can  offer  a  bonus 
for  whatever  influence  they  may  possess.  Wit 
ness  the  eagerness  with  which  four  hundred 
foreign  language  editors  in  April,  1915,  sub 
scribed  and  published  Dr.  Albert's  plea  for  an 
embargo  on  munitions,  all  at  exceedingly  lib 
eral  advertising  rates!  Witness  their  con 
stant  diatribes  against  prohibition  "on  moral 
grounds,"  and  at  the  same  time  their  itching 
importunity  for  a  share  in  the  brewers'  slush 
fund! 

The  task  of  Americanisation  must  no  longer 
be  left  to  the  foreign  language  press.  It  must 
be'  assumed  by  the  American  press  and  by  every 
other  agency  of  our  public  life.  We  may  justly 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  111 

demand  that  the  man  who  comes  here  to  make 
his  living,  to  acquire  property  and  to  enjoy 
the  protection  of  our  laws  shall  become  Ameri 
can  not  merely  in  a  political  sense,  as  the  lead 
ers  of  the  German  movement  in  America  have 
always  insisted,  but  that  he  become  American 
in  language,  thought  and  spirit.  One  of  the 
conditions  for  the  settlement  of  Europe's  tur 
moil  is  to  be  the  self-determination  of  nation 
alities.  While  we  are  demanding  self-determi 
nation  for  Jugo-Slavs,  Poles,  Lithuanians, 
Czecho-Slovaks  and  Finns  we  have  at  least  the 
right  to  demand  self-determination  for  Amer 
ica.  And  it  is  only  through  Americanisation 
that  we  can  create  the  unity  of  spirit  and  the 
morale  which  will  be  needed  to  weather  the  tur 
moil  of  the  coming  years  when  Central  Eu 
rope,  breaking  from  the  past,  will  become  the 
whirlpool  of  Bolshevism  and  of  every  other 
frenzy  which  refuses  to  recognise  organic  de 
velopment.  Already  the  waves  have  broken 
over  our  borders ;  they  will  rise  higher  and  lash 
with  greater  fury  in  the  future. 

Our  American  life  has  often  been  disparaged 
as  superficial.  Our  education  has  tended  to 
make  it  so.  We  have  too  long  proceeded  upon 


THE  GERMAN  CONSPIRACY 

the  erroneous  assumption  that  our  history  be 
gan  with  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  or 
with  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  or 
even  with  the  discovery  of  our  continent.  We 
have  wilfully  separated  ourselves  from  the  tap 
root  of  our  existence,  which  reaches  far  back 
into  the  fertile  soil  of  English  literature  and 
English  history.  Many  of  our  German-trained 
educators  have  felt  the  need  of  a  deeper  nour 
ishment,  and  mesmerised  by  the  prestidigita 
tions  of  Kultur,  have  attempted  the  violent 
process  of  grafting  us  upon  a  German  stock. 
We  know  now  that  we  could  not  have  survived 
such  a  process.  It  would  have  resulted  in  chok 
ing  out  everything  that  is  American  and  in  pro 
ducing  a  ranker  and  a  more  noxious  growth  of 
Kultur.  We  must  go  back  to  the  sources  of 
our  history;  we  are  the  descendants  of  those 
who  landed  on  the  Isle  of  Thanet ;  King  Alfred 
and  the  Barons  of  Runnymede  belong  to  us ;  we 
claim  our  share  in  the  glories  of  English  dis 
covery  and  in  the  defeat  of  the  Armada; 
Hampden  and  Pym  and  all  who  stood  forth  for 
liberty  we  claim  as  ours. 

And  while  we  derive  our  precepts  of  prac 
tical  individual  right   from   England,  let  us 


IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  113 

never  forget  that  our  idealism  had  its  birth  in 
France  and  that  the  roots  of  our  being  extend 
into  her  sacred  soil.  We  see  before  us  the  sil 
very  armour  of  Joan  of  Arc,  the  white  plume 
of  Henry  of  Navarre;  we  claim  kinship  with 
the  ragged  armies  of  the  Revolution  which 
shook  every  despotism  of  Europe  with  the  bat 
tle-cry  of  "Liberty,  fraternity  and  equality." 

We  have  strayed  far  in  the  exuberance  of 
our  youth,  but  in  these  serious  times  we  are 
returning  as  prodigals  to  claim  our  inheritance 
in  the  greatness  of  our  parent  countries,  Eng 
land  and  France ! 


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